Re: Values in community, was sexuality
From: ken (gebserspeakeasy.net)
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 07:49:45 -0800 (PST)
Sharon Villines wrote:
>> as people exercising a difference in values? At what point do we
>> tolerate bias and misunderstanding in our communities in the name of a
>> diference in values, and at what point do we overtly ask people to
>> accept the diversity of our communities, and help them learn to do so?
>> I'm just wondering where this line is for folks.
> 
> I think this is a really interesting question. One of the places where
> it becomes obvious is with children. Adults learn to hide their biases
> and to work around them but when they then have children who are not
> allowed to do things other children do or play in the houses of other
> children because of who their parents are or because a television might
> be on, it becomes much more obvious and much more of a community issue
> -- at least for those who interact with children.
> 
> I think the best description is "what works". In the process of
> interacting and being forced to get along on a day to day basis, things
> work out. People with strong and irrational biases are not likely to
> move into cohousing -- or at least not into free-form cohousing. Perhaps
> they might stumble into a Christian cohousing community, but not one
> that advertises diversity.
> 
> Groups develop a range of tolerance and people change. Lifestyles vary
> widely and I still have huge problems with the gaudy orange and black
> plastic table cloth a neighbor puts out where everyone has to look at it
> 24/7 and the piles of cardboard boxes and trash some people store
> outside their doors. So intolerance comes in all forms and the best a
> group can do is develop norms that most everyone in that individual
> group can live with. Then some people will go off and start a new
> community. That's how we became American if I remember my history right.

Perhaps a point too trivial: I prefer the term "prejudice" to "bias".
"Bias" sounds too innocent.  I can be biased in favor of, say, living in
Europe or Canada.  The word, "prejudice", on the other hand, is
generally *against* something or someone.  And it expresses more
succinctly that a "pre-judgment" is being made, making a judgment before
it is warranted, before there is evidence to support it.


-- 
"This world ain't big enough for the both of us,"
said the big noema to the little noema.


Results generated by Tiger Technologies Web hosting using MHonArc.