All of us want to lead a happy life, but blemishes of our character come in the way. One of them is prejudice, which closes our minds to the truth. Voltaire called prejudice the reason of fools.
Our thinking is stymied by prejudices. We have many preconceived notions. We assume they are correct. The fact is, universally accepted principles do not emerge from a single man’s experience.
We have to respect the views of others. It is not that our own judgments are wrong. Socrates had said: “I am extremely desirous to be persuaded by you, but not against my own better judgment.” Thomas Carlyle said: “It is useful, nay essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.” In the words of Ambrose Bierce, “It is a vagrant opinion without visible means of support.”
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Very often, man’s social behaviour is guided by worn-out customs and sustained by age-old prejudices. Most people are unwilling to give up their prejudices. They are not even aware of the need for jettisoning them. Our habits are fixed firmly.
Sometimes, prejudices emerge from the generation gap. The youngsters think that the aged are conservative and lack progressive thinking. The elders believe the youth lack values and spend money carelessly.
Experts say it is not easy to eliminate prejudices. According to an American historian, George Bancroft, “The prejudices of ignorance are more easily removed than the prejudices of interest, the first are all blindly adopted, the second wilfully preferred.” It is also said that our prejudices do not hurt others as much as they hurt us physically, mentally and spiritually.
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We should be aware of the deleterious dimensions of dangerous prejudices. These crucified Jesus Christ, poisoned Socrates, and assassinated Martin Luther King. Under their influence, some people have axed moral values. The prejudices strengthen sectionalism, communalism, regionalism and parochialism.
Let us pulverise prejudices; otherwise, they will pulverise us.
satyasundaram@yahoo.com