Sunday, 6 August 2017

The Wrong Basis for Judgement.

Somebody towards whom my feelings were ambivalent said something this week which threw a switch. Ambivalence has now changed to dislike and dark clouds are gathering again.

It raises an interesting side issue. When somebody I like does something which irritates I tend towards tolerance. When somebody I dislike does the same thing I can be most intolerant, and I suspect that’s true of most of us. It’s obviously irrational to judge a person’s actions mildly or harshly depending on how you feel about them personally, but it does seem to be a fact of human nature.

I think it plays a large part in the tensions we often see between the police and ethnic minorities, especially in America where it’s a particularly virulent issue at the moment. I think it has a lot to with the way in which the culture and the Establishment conditions people to view those of different race, ethnicity or colour. And that’s why I think it will take at least a generation – probably more – to work itself out of the sub-system naturally.

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