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If you're not one of us you're one of them
01/05/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Prejudice seems to be part of the human psyche, muses Geoff, hailing from tribal aspect and hostility to purely because you're different from other people. If you were an SF fan brought up in a non-SF environment, then you've at least tasted a sample of being bullied for your interest. Hello everyone
Prejudice seems to be part of the human psyche, hailing from tribal aspect and hostility to purely because you're different from other people. If you were an SF fan brought up in a non-SF environment, then you've at least tasted a sample of being bullied for your interest.
It's still a form or prejudice not based off of skin colour or religious beliefs but purely for being different. It's used in our genre a lot, often with super-humans and other peculiarities to draw attention to prejudice. Oddly enough, it even happens in real life within the Science Fiction community as it divides into different factions with diverse interests. Then again, SF covers such a wide area of interest, this microcosm revelation should be recognisable to all of you reading here at the moment. Even so, the difference in taste or extreme demonstration of same can raise the heckles of others indicating that a lot more is going on beneath the surface.
It means that prejudice comes not only from a difference in your skin melanin content but in all shapes, sizes, religions and interests being mostly based on being different to a 'normal' that no one really belongs to but used to judge others by. It's just sized up on being significantly different to an expectation. If you belong to a group, then you're prepared to attack any outsider for being different even with such as little a thing as different computers like the PC and Apple.
This is not necessarily with violence although that is the most obviously recognised. If anything, the violence reminds me of the uninformed bully who lashes out because it seems the best course of action against something he doesn't understand. Does this remind you of the film 'Quatermass And The Pit'? The only difference is it isn't the locust-like Martians guiding us along but our only petty fears of being different that leads the attack. Metaphors rule but only shows humans tend to let such fears rule them.
I've often thought of humans as being the most xenophobic of terrestrial species, usually for no real reason at all than some in-build genetic fault. It's well documented that predatory males in other species taking over a group will kill the off-spring off its previous alpha male to make room for its own. Not a perfect solution for the gene base but as the life of an alpha leader can last several years, there's enough time for some young to mature and escape such a fate, keeping within Darwin's survival of the fittest. Humans don't have that kind of solution to their prejudice and also have much longer life spans. No doubt in the old days, anyone unusual was shunned and sent from the village or tolerated if they are a particularly useful skill and prepared to blend in. Good thing, too, or I doubt if there anything genetic about being talented would have been lost from the gene pool.
As the population grows and villages extend into towns and even cities, the groupings changed depending on social circle and labour force. Guilds were formed to not only share knowledge but to ensure a group base with its own boundaries. Its always been commented that in the UK, the class system eventually fell apart because the collective needs drew on talent across the board and became the great equaliser in its own re-building.
An hereditary upper class is always doomed to fall simply because it isolates itself from the main gene pool. Pure-bred or pedigree is often more dangerous to a species than a mongrel mix. Crazes or fads, like the wide-spread use of tattoos and body-piercings, could be perceived as a need to blend in with a social grouping than to be left out. Quite what that makes of us non-conformists who don't adhere to much can be left to you to discuss. Mind you, even some non-conformists group up so they are hardly immune.
Whether war should be viewed as prejudice or the means to settle differences, reduce population, remove obstacles for peace or purely over territory is something that deserves more time in a different topic. The only reason its mentioned here is that prejudice does get put to one side when there is a common need of interest which bands groups together to fight off similar bands attacking a country. When there is dissent, new groups are formed in opposition. Whether it is valid or not depends entirely on rationale thought over emotion.
With humans, who have the talent for language and communication, prejudice takes a whole new meaning as we develop and try other things. I mean, even using politically correct titles for anything is as much inflammatory simply because it is window dressing rather than real change. Calling something by a different name does not change its actual purpose. Dressing the language differently does not really change reality. I learnt that from General Semantics' basic creed: 'The map only represents the territory, it isn't necessarily the territory itself.' Maps, even based on words, aren't perfect but it's easy to gloss over the details when it doesn't totally answer the design you want to see in it and leave for interpretation. People who don't conform to how you think they should be are either tolerated or pushed away into your own mind's ghetto. If you don't see them, then they don't exist until they are drawn up again. It's very much a love/hate set-up.
Our social groupings change with who we associate and what reflects our own survival. It is therefore safer to stay within the mob than to stand out from the crowd. If anything, this is very much an instinct that has done our 4-foot friends a lot of good as predators will attack isolated individual prey before the herd. It is only odder with humans that they will also attack those who are different rather than leave them to other predators. It is only the choice of grounds, be it colour, religion or whatever that changes. As intelligent beings we really need to rise above our basic instincts especially the more things change, the more they stay the same if we are to show we are more than our genetic heritage.
Watching and reading the latest info about the latest 'Doctor Who' series, something struck me as a little damning but a further demonstration of this. All the extra-terrestrials are called 'monsters' even before they have the opportunity to prove that underneath their more grotesque shapes, they probably have minds as intelligent if not more so than ourselves and might actually be nice folk doing a dirty job. I'd be cautious around Daleks and Cybermen but you get my meaning. It is the actions of the individual or species that deserves to be monstrous not based on their appearance. Would we consider the Doctor a monster if he didn't look human? Come to that, I've seen the same comment passed on Superman for similar reasons although with his abilities he's less human than any of us. It is only his deeds that don't make him the enemy. The same should apply to all.
Giving modern humanoid-looking robots a coating of flesh, albeit even if it's only plastic, to humanise them hasn't had the right effect yet. We still see them as robots. It isn't that we don't mind knowing there are artificial its just that the material hiding it looks artificial as well. No doubt when they look more like us, the android version will be assimilated into our society and only told apart when they don't attack, verbally or otherwise, those who don't belong. Let us hope computer artificial intelligence is never made to be exactly like how a human mind works cos then we would be revising the old AI menace.
As commented before in previous editorials, put humans out in the galaxy and encountering extra-terrestrials then they are definitely going to need to curb their instincts or face being squatted on by beings with similar instincts that sees us as a threat. We might live longer if we rule our heads by intellect rather than our genetics.
Its problematic that prejudice is also linked into that fundamental something that gives us the drive to succeed. Whether it can be divorced or used in a less threatening way makes for interesting questions that needs to be resolved.
Do I have any prejudices? Against people. No. I find humans an odd species that is capable of behaving when it chooses to do so. It is only at the edges of society or when it breaks down that tends to do a disservice to the rest of its community. I'm very much the outside watching everything else. I've been known to fit in many patterns yet belong to none of them. Then again, I wouldn't be considered 'normal' in any society. Then again, what editor is?
Thank you, take care, good night and be safe Go on then.
Geoff Willmetts
editor: SFCrowsnest.co.uk
Very Serious Thought # 1: Based on the news reports from Virginia, USA, after the campus shooting, can someone explain to me why any civilian would want a military assault rifle for home protection? After all, we haven't been invaded by dinosaurs yet only those who are loaded for bear.
A real Zen thought:Life would be easier if we saw everyone as being equal to ourselves. Where there are differences, we should see the benefits not the disadvantages.
A real Zen thought:Being nice to everyone costs nothing but gains good will.
Another real Zen thought but this time for potential writers: If you can express an opinion independently of others and aren't likely to bend to the masses then you might show potential as a writer.
For all links, run your mouse across the last line of every entry. They are there.
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