The last days of this historic presidential election have brought to the surface prejudices that ride around in the back of the minds of Americans all the time. Usually they are kept under control, never caught on videotape or shouted out in public places ... although they are always there and affect the reasoning of many people.
1. The prejudice against political liberals, immigrants and ethnic minorities; people who are seen as not really Americans. They are labeled "terrorists" which has become an illogical catch-all phrase parallel to the way the word "communist" was used during my childhood in the 1950s. They are called "not patriotic," even "traitors." The new N word is "Arab."
2. The prejudice against conservative Protestants; people who are seen as uneducated, unreasonable, obsessed with unscientific myths and out-dated traditions. They are labeled "fundamentalists" and "stupid." They are called "dinosaurs" and "haters."
The public displays of anger at campaign rallies and the trumped-up fiction of talk-show hosts are not as worrisome as the quiet, unexpressed versions of these prejudices that are much more widely held. One indicator of how widespread these prejudices may be is the persistence of concepts that are total fiction, yet believed by large numbers of Americans to be facts. For example, that Gov. Palin mandated the teaching of creationism in public school science classes and appointed unqualified members of her church to the state courts in Alaska. Or, that Senator Obama is not an American citizen or is a Muslim. All of these"facts" (and many more that I've heard) are totally, simply not factual and never were. They exist because of the prejudices of the people who think that these fictions sound factual. (Of course they are helped along by a propaganda technique called "the big lie" which was honed by the Nazis in the 1930s and used widely by Stalin. Certain members of the media are using this immoral technique today and perhaps also some campaign workers, but that is a different topic.)
Prejudice #1 is held by some of the people who suffer from prejudice #2 and vice versa. But do the rest of us make sure to filter out and bracket this stuff as it sales past us in the political food fights? Or do we partake a little (secretly) of the Koolaid?
The danger of these prejudices is that in a democracy decisions could actually be made on the basis of non-factual ideas. Above and beyond politics, we are at a critical moment in American history. This could be the beginning of the decline of our nation and its Bill of Rights or it could be a moment of rebirth and renewal. Clear-headed thinking is absolutely essential of every decision-maker, and every registered voter is a decision-maker.
Prejudice is dangerous precisely because it seems reasonable to the person with the prejudice. It is sometimes called a "blind spot" because the person infected with it cannot see it. It is dangerous because things that you cannot see can kill you. Being invisible does nothing to diminish lethality. It is time for all Americans to ask themselves, What is my blind spot? Where am I prejudiced? Which of the "facts" that I know to be true are actually fiction? How am I going to adjust my thinking to steer around the dangerous of my own miscalculations?
Comments