Assuming The Unknown (II)

Assuming The Unknown (II) - In ideal families and (hopefully) schools alike, kids are told not to measure everything by the same yardstick. Quite in contrast, in broken homes and biased educational facilities, young impressionable individuals sadly often learn just the opposite. As if that challenge of refraining from automatically lumping something together by simply calling for passing a premature judgement on someone or something were not a major undertaking all by itself already, it is de facto most deliberately manipulated by the media. We are constantly fed distorted, partial, false and overall specifically tailored news and so eventually fall for their propaganda. Here are just a few examples of how we are led to believe that generalization is justified. - Just because one white lunatic here gets his hands on guns and decides to go postal one day taking multiple innocent and randomly chosen lives, does not imply that, as a rule, every single mentally unstable white male becomes a potential suspect for this particular type of crime. - Just because one black woman snaps one morning and steers her SUV into a pond with the sick intent to drown her five kids locked inside, we cannot be led to the, ah, all too logical conclusion that black mothers are kind of prone to showing such or a similar behavior. - Just because a Native American stands up for his people's right to defend what is supposedly left of their land, which turns out to be in federal possession, after all, and thus refuses to be removed from it until his last breath, we shall not be that ignorant to think that all Indian tribes are tarred with the same brush. - Just because one entire Asian family is wiped out on US soil in one single swift blow of unsolvable assassination, it would just be absolutely wrong to fear for every Chinese family in debts to be involved in dubious Mafia affairs. - Just because a caregiver ends up ravishing a special- needs person, this does not allow for the assumption that every other individual working in the same field is a potential rape threat. - Just because one radical Muslim starts a rampage and stabs whoever happens to be around him at that time, such an incident does not relate to the projection of every young male of Islamic faith being a ticking time- bomb for dormant violence. - In a somewhat different sense, just because someone falls off their horse, bike, a tree, or whatever, such does, or rather should not mark the end of those activities in the future. - Just because students fail exams in school, their parents and teachers would be ill- advised to expect the same to just happen over and over again. - Just because somebody steals, cons, lies, misbehaves, miscalculates, misjudges, etc., this does not make them hopeless cases, so to speak. We all take wrong turns and make bad or poor decisions every now and then due to which we should not be classified as helplessly unredeemable. - The nature of just spilling out unfounded presumptions ought to be harnessed, tamed and civilized like a true beast. Instead, it is medially conditioned to the liking of those who must be seriously fearing for the loss of control over us. Once the seed is planted with respect to collectively portraying certain ethnic, racial, political and ideological groups in one and the same light, we become even faster in reacting in prejudicial ways. This is highly dangerous and may easily trap us again as the darkest chapters of human history are bound to repeat themselves. At first, we need to carefully tune in and then strictly filter out whatever feels wrong. With the help of our gut feeling, we should ultimately be able to free ourselves of those rather tantalizing over- generalizations. By the time we see through the gimmicks the media pulls on us by steadily bombarding us with deceptive images and messages, we should be ready to just turn a deaf ear to them for once and all. Last but not least, just do me the favor of taking a brief time- out the next time you are about to jump to conclusions again. Become aware of the speculative fabric of your thought and reevaluate it before expressing it. As I said before, I am not any better than you and shall consequently attempt exactly the same from now on. Good luck, and may your gut instinct be with you always!