The mark of the Plural
Apr. 12th, 2007 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nyykiA good friend of mine describes herself, whymsically, as a "practicing homo sapien", just to be cute. She's used this phraseology to me a couple of times, and that got me to thinking.
I don't like labels. They categorize, file, index, and divide us into little boxes. And that's one of the things that I think most damages this nation we live in. Instead of working as a unit, we work as a bunch of little sub-units fighting to get as much of the pie as we can. This thinking creates a fragmented environment where problems go unresolved for years, sometimes even decades, because it's not a top priority for any group, but would be a top priority for the whole.
So, here's a radical thought experiment. Instead of typifying yourself as whatever subgroup or other label, how about going for the broad term. And no, I'm not saying to go for man or woman instead of waitress or Actor, either, I'm saying to take it even fqarther and go to the level of person, human, or as my friend says, homo sapien. Find the broadest term you can find, and if that means going to the level of "Self aware conciousness" or "something that exists," cool. Most of the specific labels don't really get the full measure of a person anyway, so it's all shadow dancing anyway.
Look and see how thinking this way changes how you view different people and their subtle differences.
I don't like labels. They categorize, file, index, and divide us into little boxes. And that's one of the things that I think most damages this nation we live in. Instead of working as a unit, we work as a bunch of little sub-units fighting to get as much of the pie as we can. This thinking creates a fragmented environment where problems go unresolved for years, sometimes even decades, because it's not a top priority for any group, but would be a top priority for the whole.
So, here's a radical thought experiment. Instead of typifying yourself as whatever subgroup or other label, how about going for the broad term. And no, I'm not saying to go for man or woman instead of waitress or Actor, either, I'm saying to take it even fqarther and go to the level of person, human, or as my friend says, homo sapien. Find the broadest term you can find, and if that means going to the level of "Self aware conciousness" or "something that exists," cool. Most of the specific labels don't really get the full measure of a person anyway, so it's all shadow dancing anyway.
Look and see how thinking this way changes how you view different people and their subtle differences.
