ஞாயிறு, 2 ஆகஸ்ட், 2009

Stereotype

What?
Most of us stereotype a person, country, people ... the list is quite long.
Is it bad? Hmm...i think so.Consider an example,we watch couple of hollywood films, read about american culture a bit from the media.Then guess what - we brand them that they have no culture, no family values, individualistic society etc.Some of this could be true - but definitely there are lot of americans who don't fit in to this description.
The same applies when foreigners(again some, no stereotyping) still see india as a land of cows, million gods, poor etc.Again some of this are true(quite a huge chunk of our society are below the poverty line) but does not do justice to the development that has happened in last decade or so.Ok, to go at a micro-level, what about the stereotyping we do to our friends & family."I know this guy, he/she is like this, will not change" - this statement could be about a friend, based on the perception we have.Even after many years, it still does not change - the friend could very well have changed.

Why?
So why the heck do we do this? Well, i really dunno but one possible answer is a term called "mental laziness"(i read about this in an article in "The Hindu" by ???, i forgot due to mental laziness:-)). We all surely know laziness but this one is roughly "refusal to give work to the neurons as it is inconvenient". It really is difficult not to label a person / people based on his/her/their action.

So what?
What do we loose? We loose many things, especially the chance to keep our mind open.In turn, we loose the oppurtunity to learn, create new relationship and finally you know what - we accumulate karma(i don't have a better word).To be more simple, we create a slow poison in our mind which is sure to hamper our progress.
Consider, that you are meeting an old friend of yours after a long time.Your experience / stereotyping says he/she was a selfish person.You still see them thru' the same tinted glasses.But what happens if that person realised their mistake and probably now contributes to the society more than you ever did in your life! Just imagine the possibilities!

Remedy
I'm no "I know it all" guy.But personal experience suggests yoga and reading talks given by great yogic masters like Sadhguru, Nithyananda... But i do know that you need to keep flexing the brain of yours all the time.Happy neuron firing!