The Objective Eye

This picture has little to do with this post.

There are many dirty, nasty words in the English language but none are so reviled as one word, prejudice. The nasty of it is how people tend to make an unfair assessment as to the character of an individual or group, and how those people act upon that assessment to the detriment of all involved. Prejudice can be a terrible thing, but we all already do it on a regular basis every time we meet someone or encounter a situation. Prejudice is only really a preconceived notion or opinion after all, and we all have opinions. 

This is why the idea that is taught in schools of abolishing prejudice is silly. Don't get me wrong, I understand that when they teach children about prejudice they aren't talking about how little Billy prefers vanilla ice cream over chocolate because he thinks chocolate ice cream looks like poo. No, no, why it's silly is the fact that the problem isn't prejudice itself, the problem is prejudice founded on misinformation, fear, ignorance, or a cocktail composed of all of the above. Though because the above distinction is hardly ever made the general consensus is that you should never prejudice because it's bad, and since it's bad you should feel guilty when you do it. Ok, granted that last part I'm sure isn't what most people drill into a child's brain, but guilt is the general feeling that a healthy child suffers when they do something they have been told is bad, so it's a sad by-product of what we teach children.

Not the Objective Eye.

So from my stand point the focus is on the wrong problem, and so therefore I think the solution is wrong as well. Obviously I must have my own solution, well yes thank you I do. The Objective Eye! Now I'm not speaking of some strange disembodied floating eye that- ummm- floats everywhere, no no. What I am talking about is a skill that mostly everyone lacks, or lacks in degrees. It's the ability to look from outside one's self, apart from emotion, or past experience, and really critique your own actions. 

At first this is far more simple said then done, and when emotions run strong it is even more difficult to do. These emotions can also be tied to a very strong or traumatic past experience which can make the prejudice even stronger. 

Ewwwwww.

A good example is little Billy, convincing him that the chocolate ice cream clearly isn't fecal matter would no doubt be an easy task. Unless of course poor Billy was once tricked into eating actual fecal matter, then I'm sure he still might be rather resist to the idea of eating something that looked rather dookieish.

Now at this point most people would choose to shun the ice cream because it reminds them of some painful childhood memory, but not little Billy. He has the Objective Eye, and below is how he is going to use it to solve his dilemma,

• Billy: I don't want the poop cream.
• OE: Why not?
• Billy: Because it looks like turd.
• OE: Is it turd?
• Billy: It could be.
• OE: Why would you think that?
• Billy: Because that bully Big Turk (just go with it) tricked me into eating dog poop that one time.
• OE: Ok, but is Big Turk giving you the ice cream? 
• Billy: No it's my dad.
• OE: Is he going to give you poop to eat?
• Billy: No but he does make me eat all my vegetables.
• OE: IRRELEVANT! Does he feed you poo?
• Billy: No.
• OE: Then eat it you wimp.
• Billy: Ok.
• Billy: Ewwwww, chocolate ice cream is grosssss.
• OE: Understood, is it poop though?
• Billy: No
• OE: See I told you, nothing to worry about. Now whine until your dad gets you a vanilla cone instead.

In the end using the Objective Eye is just asking where the prejudice is coming from, is it from the rational mind? Or from emotion? 

It's asking why do I feel this way when I think about this prejudice? Is it really justified, or do I simply feel that it is?

The Objective Eye is all about simplification, about shaving away the layers of useless misconceptions, about reexamining the ideas that we already have, and about reigning in overwhelming emotion. It's about building the self discipline to consciously control responses that are largely based out of processes that occur without the knowledge of our conscious self. It's something that we all struggle with, and something that we all need to master.