By Raj Mistry
Are We Fair?
We all blame people for not being fair. But how do we discriminate?
Have you ever thought about why we like some people and don’t like others? What are the reasons behind it? Are we logically disliking them, or is it purely our emotions and bias talking?
When Different Opinions Become Deal-Breakers
Have you ever hated someone just for liking a different political party or having a different view on something than yours? And here’s the thing—we’re more likely to hate someone we barely know who has a different opinion than us. We register that person as a bad guy without even considering that other people may have different opinions, and that’s their right. We’re not dictators where what we think or say, everyone has to agree on. Everyone has their choices about what they like and what not. That can’t be forced, and we can’t use their preferences as the basis for whether we’ll like them or not.
We may not like them, but certainly we can’t hate them for having different opinions.
And if our friends don’t like someone, we reciprocate and don’t even try to find out if the person we’re going to hate is good or bad. We just do as our friend told us.
We hardly think rationally about such things. Do I dislike someone for something they did, or am I hating them for no good reason?
Why We Need Different Perspectives
If we all had the same view, then who would argue and tell us if we’re doing the right thing or not?
Suppose we all agreed that animals have no rights and all animals must be killed. Imagine no one to oppose this—then all the animals would go extinct. So it’s good, actually it’s best, that we have different minds, thought processes, and opinions. Otherwise, it would be a disaster.
Another example: if we all thought the same way, humans would justify everything—like rape or burning people alive. I’ve seen many people defending rapists and terrorists. Imagine if everyone did the same—then we’re doomed.
Our Blind Spots
When we like something, we create a blind spot for ourselves where we do not see, or choose not to see, the bad side of something or someone we like. And it can be revealed only when someone points it out to us.
We need people in life who have different opinions, who can show their view and point out faults in our thinking, and we can do the same for them. This way we understand the topic from all perspectives and not only from one angle. When we discuss, we get a clear view. By understanding someone else’s view, we’re not going to flip our own belief system completely, but we’ll be aware that what we were thinking was perfect also has some flaws in it. And once we see it, we can work on fixing or improving it.
But if we just argue over it and don’t listen to a thing the other person is saying, then we’ll never find the flaws we have and never grow.
What Happened to Real Debates?
We’ve all seen debates on news channels, and all we get is a headache out of it. Everyone’s shouting on top of their lungs and doesn’t let anyone else speak, or everyone starts to ramble all together, listening to no one—giving a bad show to the audience.
A debate is where two or more intellectuals meet and discuss the topic from all perspectives and come to conclusions. It’s not a game to see whose blood pressure reaches the highest.
Also, when people don’t have the full knowledge, they argue a lot trying to prove they’re correct. They don’t want the other person to share the complete information because even though it’s a half-truth, we stick with our statement. Why? Because we don’t want to accept we were wrong. So we keep arguing, and when that happens, we start hating the person we’re arguing with and other people who agree with them.
Respecting Different Beliefs
If you see someone from a different culture, or let’s say someone is religious and you’re an atheist, don’t mock them for having faith in religion. It’s their choice, not yours. The same goes for them—they can’t hate you for being an atheist and force you to join their religion. You can try to understand why they do it, you can respect their belief, mind your own business, and live in harmony.
It’s very common to see fights between religious people and atheists, different political party supporters, vegans vs. non-vegetarians, and many more.
Think Before You Judge
Think before judging someone. How bad are we to not like someone who has only one quality different than us? That’s too shallow.
Judge the whole thing, not just one characteristic. And why hate or like at all? Just respect the other person’s view and save yourself from angry, hateful thoughts and giving unnecessary hate to people.
Also, we support someone or something even if they’re wrong in all ways, but we still do it because we like them and are biased about it.
The question is: are we being fair? Maybe it’s time we look at ourselves before we point fingers at others.
