Sep 11 2008
Ignorance, Prejudice, Fear… Hand in Hand? (PERIOD 1)
Share your observations about ignorance, prejudice, and fear and how they contribute to, create, or control social and political circumstances. Cite some modern or current examples from global, national, local, or even personal sources. Are they inextricably linked?
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24 responses so far
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Ignorance plays a huge part in social/political issues. Have you seen the election commercials? For the people who don’t watch the debates, the news and the campaign adds are all they can see. McCain Adds only focus on how McCain and Palin are the “origonal maverics” and how Obama is “not ready to lead.” If that is all someone sees, they are going to vote for McCain, even though he might dissagree with everything that person believes in.
Prejudice also has a large roll in social and political issues. I used to think that it was totally unfair that African American people had holidays and college funds specifically for the color of their skin, and that if they wanted to be treated as equals, they shouid only get the benifits that we have, but I was wrong. It is harder for a black person to get a job because of racist bosses. It is tough for respectable black members of society to be treated fairly because when they do something amazing, it is congradulated, but when a black drug dealer is discovered, it feeds the steriotype. This is completely unfair, because there are just as many white drug dealers as there are black ones, but the prejudices that society has won’t let that be said aloud. It’s because of these steriotypes that some black people do what they do, because they think from a very young age that they can never do any better than what society says they can, and this awful never-ending cycle yeilds statistics such as this: “the nationwide college graduation rate for black students stands at an appallingly low rate of 42 percent.”
and thats only the black people who go to college. “Estimates of the black rate of graduation from high school with a regular diploma range between 69% and 75%, with the NELS showing a 74% graduation rate.” that means that only about 31% of African Americans get a college education.
Fear. Fear has one of the biggest roles of all in political and social circumstances. Fear of losing an election can make a politican change his views. Fear of impeachment may make a president lie to his country. Fear of starvation may drive a man to steal money for his family, however he can. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You must do the things you think you cannot do.” If everyone did that, there would be an insane amount of people breaking limits and doing things that they just arent supposed to do. I believe fear is necessary, but when it’s brought to light, people ridicule it.
http://add911.blogspot.com/2007/08/alarming-insight-on-high-school.html
http://www.jbhe.com/features/50_blackstudent_gradrates.html
http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_fear.html
[Reply]
Fear, ignorance, and prejudice are, in my opinion, inextricably linked. Many fears are founded in ignorance, and both fear and ignorance can often lead to prejudice. For instance, prejudices like racism and sexism are both founded in ignorant ideologies that started a long time ago. Even with the advances made in civil rights and employment opportunities, it is not uncommon for some people still to look down on others simply because of their sex or race. Countless social situations are also controlled by fear and ignorance. Scores of people are quick to judge others even if they do not know them, and because most people just want to fit in, when they come up with a judgment that is not normal or not something they can relate to, their fear and ignorance leads them to turn away from that person and possibly lose a potential friend. Without fear and ignorance, there would be no prejudice, because everyone would take the time to know people without judging them or fearing that they will be judged themselves for talking to that person. Lack of fear and ignorance would also put an end to beliefs that certain people are better than others because of their sex or race, which are very dated and unreasonable beliefs.
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Fear, prejudice and ignorance are linked and commonly found together. They make it hard for the feared group to become part of accepted society and they are excluded from many events. People sometimes mistrust other racial groups and treat all of with suspicion and think that they are all trying to undermine society. Because of this they are excluded from participating in political events, such as voting or holding office, or social circumstances, like getting education or being allowed to worship freely and openly.
A modern example is that many people of Hindu descent are mistaken for Islamic Extremists terrorists even though they are of a different racial group, which happens to be plagued by Radical Islamic Extremist terrorists as well. Another modern example is that Arabs, whether Muslim or not, are thought to be Extremists. They are usually selected for “random” screening at airports and are commonly look upon with suspicion by passing people, who think they might be terrorists. Fear and ignorance are very much a part of our current governmental policies. Today, it is common practice to spy, imprison or ban anyone who might fit the racial profile of a terrorist.
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Ignorance, Prejudice and fear most definitely contribute and create or control to social and political circumstances. One of the political circumstances in which they contribute to is the 2008 presidential election. This year we now have a black man running for president and a woman running for vice president. Prejudice and ignorance play roles in this election because some people out there choose who they are voting for not because of the candidate’s views and capabilities but because of their race and their gender. They may not vote for the black man because of the dark color of his skin. Then again others may only vote for the candidate with the woman vice president simply because she is a woman. This is of course prejudice but also ignorant because they only focus on what they are and not who they are. They don’t listen and therefore they don’t know. Then of course there is fear from those who are scared of change altogether. Also, we are socially handicapped because of ignorance, prejudice, and fear. An everyday example is how school students form groups based on their thoughts of others around them. Because of their appearance they may look at them differently than others or look down on them (prejudice) and make false assumptions. From those assumptions they made they may be afraid to associate with them (fear). And all of this happens because they don’t actually know them (ignorance). Not only is that an example of how social circumstances can be made based off of those elements but also that they are indeed inextricably linked.
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In my opinion, ignorance, prejudice, and fear are all linked together. Prejudice and ignorance are linked through their meanings. Prejudice is a prestated opinion before the person with the opinion has any knowledge of the situation. Ignorance is an act of being ignorant or having a lack of knowledge. Now this lack of knowledge simply is the one having ignorance believes they know a lot, when really they don’t really know about the subject. Fear relates into this because people who are prejudice simply have their prestated opinion with little knowledge of the truth of the subject. The little knowledge that person has is the ignorance tied into the situation. And fear relates into this situation through the opponent to the prejudice and ignorant. They may have fear of the other stating false accusations of what really isn’t true. A perfect example would be like others have stated, the presidential election in 2008. A women is in the running for vice president, and a black man is running for the lead position of president. People are prejudice and ignorant to these people because they state opinons that arent always true, like some say, ” a woman can’t handle a vice presidency position,” or ask questions like, “can a black man really run this country?” These are all prestated opinons and both are doubts. Now the candidates have fear in these situations because it may affect their positions in the polls. In all however, prejudice, fear, and ignorance are all clearly inextricably linked in real life situations, and play roles in everyday life.
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Ignorance, prejudice, and fear are all inextricably linked. By that I mean they all have a domino effect that creates social, as well as, political circumstances. Once ignorance becomes present, fear becomes visible and then prejudices are created. Why do all three become apparent in certain situations? After 9/11, Muslims become synonymous with terrorism. Due to ignorance, many Americans lacked to realize that the Islamic religion is not the root of evil, or terrorism. With this ignorance came fear. The fear was that anybody that looked Middle Eastern has to be dealt with in a cautious manner. Last summer, I had to go through customs on a return flight from London, in which my family and I spent two hours watching security search our bags for specific food items, which we said we didn’t have. Once fear is established, the infamous prejudice comes along that I know too well. False ideologies about groups of people are created with the help of fear and ignorance. After 9/11, I faced fellow students who came to believe that I practiced terrorism in my household. Terrorism is nowhere allowed in Islam, and there is no section that states to have a holy war. If people where not afraid, or ignorant they would pick up the Qu’ran and read for themselves what the religion is all about. The media portrays Islam as a negative means in this world, which creates a one sided paradigm. Many people lack to see that on the other side of the world, people are fighting to keep their old cultures and practices and not succumb into the “Western” life. These people are in fear too, but sometimes use Islam as their alibi when they commit unlawful atrocities, which in turn cause false prejudices for everyone else. The root of some major issues could possibly by ended if ignorance, fear and prejudice were taken out of the grand scheme of things. Politicians utilize fear and ignorance in their campaigns to create a prejudice for his or her opponent. It is not rare to find some person, or social group taking advantages of these three. If humanity yearns for peace, then why not get ride of ignorance, prejudice, and fear?
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Next time you’re there; take a good look within the walls of the high school cafeteria. Not the tables themselves, but the people sitting, eating, and talking at them. What do most of these tables have in common? Fear, ignorance, and prejudice. Glancing around, most tables have the same set of people sitting at them each day. Although some of these tables feature various races, ethnicities, and personality types, others represent the fear of letting someone different from themselves take a seat. They are fearful because of their ignorance, as they may take their backpack and stick it on the empty seat, without even getting to know the person walking alone. The effects from this unfortunate, but common, gesture may go unnoticed, as some completely ignore the prejudice found within them.
For example, the cafeteria arrangements in the popular 2004 film, Mean Girls, features an abundant amount of analogous tables, from their looks to their actions, as all are too fearful of accepting someone different, and therefore too ignorant to care, causing unnecessary prejudice to erupt. Although the characters in the movie eventually accepted each other’s differences, our lunch arrangements still have walls to overcome. If we try hard enough, we can eliminate at least one of these three actions, causing the others to crumble as well, since they are inextricably linked. So, go ahead, sit with someone new, talk to someone different, and accept those in need of a seat, and watch these issues disappear.
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Ignorance, prejudice, fear; three words, three meanings; are each partially responsible for the world’s most urgent tribulations. Often overlooked is our own ignorance. Mine was made apparent while trying to think of a current event, a novel (besides the Scarlet Letter and the Crucible), anything to write about for this assignment. I searched and searched my mind, past the countless math formulas, SAT strategies, and tennis shots. Resigned after finding nothing I resorted to the New York Times website and was immediately overwhelmed by the vast array of stories that just barely delve into each of the world’s problems. Haiti’s children are working in strange homes to try to survive? Another hurricane just struck? The poverty in Africa is common knowledge but who would think that so many other countries are facing poverty, out of our own ignorance?
Prejudice, though seemingly less common and definitely more disguised, is prevalent even the world’s most modern and most liberal societies. Prejudice does not necessarily need to involve races or even religions. Any assumptions made by any trait could qualify as prejudice. After 9/11, any woman wearing a headdress was suspected of foul play, and any man of a darker skin color was given a second glance. Some people claim that if they seemed they were from the Middle East, they were more frequently stopped for security checks at the airport.
Ignorance can lead to fear and fear can lead to prejudice, so they are connected because they lead to each other. I do believe that they are not inextricably linked though. Prejudice can be caused by hatred. Fear stands alone though. Nothing needs to lead to it, and ignorance does not necessarily need to lead to prejudice.
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Ignorance is the collective term that applies to the situation of ‘not knowing’. Of course, there are always the instances where this is purposely put into play, and then there are the chances where there is a lack of opportunity for knowing better. Either way, ignorance provides a foundation for opinions to be formulated upon matters. Opinions often lead to prejudice, for it is not often that people can be so open as to accept all opinions that are not concurrent to their own. As a result of prejudice, fear is stirred towards any that bear opposing ideas. This fear is cultivated as a defense mechanism in order to preserve the ‘truth’ behind one’s opinions. This truth is what grounds their faith and understanding in life, and when there is a conflicting explanation for anything, it provokes a feeling of fear. Fear produces hate, and this just spins off into turmoil. One can just look towards the novel, The Crucible, for better understanding of such a progression of situation. The various characters in the book were ignorant and were foolish enough to believe in witchcraft, despite the honest truth that the witches were but scapegoats to release social tension. This ignorance escalated into prejudice of those ‘witches’, which led to fear of them — finally, it ended in hangings and a terror stricken land. Ignorance, prejudice, and fear are linked towards negative outcomes in society and politics. Today, one can easily see such behaviour towards the democratic candidate for president of the U.S.A. – Barack Obama. Those who are ignorant towards his policies and his character are quick to ground their opinions on his skin color. This prejudice leads to racial stereotyping and fear. This could pretty much determine whether or not he will be voted president come election-time, therefore showing a blatant example of how ignorance leads to prejudice, which leads to fear, which leads to the molding of society and politics as we know it.
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Ignorance, prejudice, and fear are certainly linked. It is almost impossible to feel how they are not. Most noticeably, and horrifically, racial groups were, and are judged based on the color of their skin, but also, women, were, and are judged based on their sex. However, many people would be quick to deny that racism/ sexism, prejudice in general, still exists. Yet, undeniably, people are afraid, or, for lack of a better word, worried about something different, something new. A perfect example is this upcoming presidential election. A black man is running for president, and people are unsure about that. Some people are so fearful that they do not care (ignorant) to find out about who the man really is. Instead, they focus on all the controversy surrounding him. Ignorance leads to ill perceived means of fear, which lead to untrue prejudices.
An example that I have is a more personal one, which happened to my friends and I a few years ago. There was a group of about six of us at the mall one day, and we dropped into one of the makeup stores. While walking around, we began to notice that one of the security guards from the store was following us around. He was fearful that a group of 14-15 year old girls were probably going to try and steal something. He judged us based on what we were, not who we are. He was also completely ignorant of the fact that we were growing increasingly uncomfortable, and that, unfortunately, cost the store, as we left without getting anything.
It is absolutely amazing to me that people can judge others based on their looks. They can also be judged based on how the people around them act. Prejudice is something that can be stopped, can be done with. Ignorance and fear can be good and bad, but the fact that they have become guilty by association is something that can be stopped.
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Fear, prejudice and ignorance do not come in a package of one. Prejudice derives from ignorance and fear. People judge people they do not know anything about everyday. In a high school setting people fear what their image will look like if they sit down with the new student or the classmate that does not look like everyone else. Judging also stems from not knowing about someone’s culture or lifestyle. Society belittles minorities because the majority does not know or want to know anything about someone else’s way or life. The effects of prejudices are felt in society and an example of that is the employment of women. Women, usually, will earn less money then a man even when they have the same qualifications. The gender equality issue is one of ignorance from the employer. The three intertwined elements have played a significant role in the 2008 election. The winner of this election will make history as either being the first African American in office or the first woman in office. Citizens across the country are changing parties and ideas to pick based off their prejudices or similarities with the candidates. People fear the things they do not know and in turn become ignorant of subjects. And ignorance leads to having prejudices against other groups. The three are very much linked together and are hard to stop because they occur all over the world.
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Fear, ignorance, and prejudice do, in a way, coincide with one another. Many people ask the question, “Why are some people ignorant or prejudice of others?” The answer is fear. Perhaps people are ignorant because they have a fear of being insecure. Because people are insecure about themselves, then they decide to find the flaws in others to make themselves feel more appealing. Unfortunately, this method sometimes gets out of hand, and usually the ignorance is towards people of a different race, religion, etc. There is “perfect” example of such behavior; one can only assume it is occuring. Take a look at this year’s election between Barack Obama, an African-American, and John McCain, a caucasian. Listening to Barack Obama, one can agree that he has valid points and that, most certainly, he is fit to run the United States of America. But, despite the fact that slavery and the civil rights movement has been gone for year, people still have a fear of having an African-American run the country (though I am a strong Obama supporter). Therefore, there are many people who look at him negatively and look favorably upon McCain simply because he is caucasian.
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Many times fear, ignorance, and prejudice combine with one another and grow stronger with every negative consequence they create. One obvious combination of the three can be found in our nation’s broad and uniformed discrimination of people from the Middle East. The vicious cycle began when a non-standard group of radical Muslims attacked a major American landmark and instilled a terrible fear into people across the Nation. And stemming from this attack people, acting upon their fear of being attacked again, felt the need to retaliate and the need to designate a scapegoat needed to be found ASAP. And with their minds clouded by the panic and worry caused by their fear, they allowed themselves to place the blame contributing to their fear on the most convenient scapegoat that, if properly fueled by ignorance, could be held responsible on a national scale. And once the idea that Middle Easterners were responsible was accepted by enough people prejudice could begin to grow, unopposed by people’s rational or logical judgment. And do you know why, because those people are scared and now basing their opinions on the unchallenged ignorance all around them.
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Prejudice is the product of ignorance and fear. Ignorance, prejudice, and fear are three terms that go hand in hand. Some people today think these things only existed in the past, when racial tension was at its peak. The truth is that these social “disorders” still exist in society today, and the root of ignorance, prejudice, and fear all start with a poor education or isolated upbringing. People with a poor education, such as the early American white southerners, did not know anything about Africans, where they came from, and what their culture was. As far as they were concerned, the Africans came off of a ship and were sold to serve them. Eventually, yes, people did start to catch on that slaves were people too, but then prejudice, fear, and ignorance intervened. Slave owners ignored the Africans as a race, and now feared what they were doing was morally wrong. So they became prejudice, saying that slaves were inferior to white men to ease their own consciences.
We have come a long way since then, with Civil Rights being one of the most notable advances toward a better society. However, ignorance, fear, and prejudice still loom over our shoulders every day. Even after all these social advances, people are still being rejected from jobs because of their skin color, race, or sex. The fact of the matter boils down to prejudice. As stated earlier, it is the product of ignorance and fear. They are inseparable. We prejudice because we fear, and we fear because we fear what we do not understand. This is one of the most important problems in society today because it hinders our effectiveness and our living. I believe that the world is what you make it. If we are to enrich our societies, these three ancient chains have to be severed, however this is easier said than done.
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To me, ignorance, prejudice, and fear are definitely linked and work to create our social and political circumstances. A current example of how ignorance, prejudice, and fear help to shape our political circumstances is this year’s presidential election. In this election, there is a young black man running for president, an older white man running for president and a woman running for vice president. People may vote or not vote for a candidate because of their age, gender or race. This displays prejudice and ignorance because people may vote according to what the candidates are instead of who they are, what they have done, and what their capabilities are. Some might also vote for a certain candidate because they fear the change they represent. On a personal level, I have seen how ignorance, prejudice and fear contribute to our social circumstances. When we hear of other nations in crisis we usually rush to their aid and offer our help, but when we see our own countrymen in suffering we are ignorant to it. Last year, I went on a mission trip with my church to West Virginia and was disturbed and saddened to see how impoverished the people were. Also, I see that at school many people make judgments and assumptions about people from their appearance without knowing them at all, and, therefore, make decisions about whether they should associate with certain people just by looking at them. These examples show how ignorance, prejudice, and fear shape our political and social circumstances and that they are, indeed, linked to each other.
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I think that ignorance, prejudice, and fear are often linked in our society. Ignorance about a person or group of people leads to fear, the fear of the unknown. This fear leads to a prejudice against that person or group. This phenomenon can be seen in the pages of our history books, everywhere from the Holocaust to Women’s Suffrage to the Civil Rights Movement. All of these examples show how extreme prejudices, grown out of a fusion of ignorance and fear, can lead to radical changes in society. Though some would argue that racism and sexism are things of the past, these prejudices still exist in our society today, though much less prevalent. We often associate certain types of clothing, music, and behaviors with people based on their race, sex, or other outward traits that often have little to do with that person. This stereotyping is a subtle way that society shows it’s ignorance, fear, and prejudice.
Politically, we are at a turning point. In the past, society’s prejudices have made the policital world limited to only white men as the leaders. In the past few decades, this has been slowly changing, with women and minorities gaining more and more power. The 2008 presidential election is revolutionary, because for the first time, an African American is a major party nominee (Barack Obama), and a woman is a vice-presidential nominee (Sarah Palin). No matter who wins the election, it will change Americans’ view of the stereotypical politician forever.
Basically, ignorance, fear, and prejudice all go hand in hand. Wherever one is present, the others are sure to follow. But by making a conscious effort to learn about and appreciate people different from ourselves, we as a society can grow away from these prejudices, slowly but surely.
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In today’s society, one would think that ignorance, prejudice and fear were small, but that would be an understatement. True, our society has come a long way since times were it was much grander, but it is still much present. I believe that throughout history and even in current times, ignorance, prejudice and fear have been one of the building blocks of wars. For example, it can not be argued that these three factors were not the main reasons for World War II. WWII’s orchestrator, Hitler, was prejudice against Jews or anyone else who was not the ideal man. This man blamed the Jews for several ignorant reasons including their wealth, and therefore tried to exterminate these innocent people. More currently, I believe that ignorance, prejudice and fear are found throughout our war on terrorism. Yes, the terrorist attacks were unacceptable, however this has caused prejudiced against Arabs in our country. Just a few months ago when I was traveling, I was standing behind an Arab family in security. I was not randomly asked to be checked, neither were the white people around me, however the Arab family was. I watched as the young son of an Arab man was confused as his father told him to follow him for additional safety checking. Instances, similar to this happen very frequently. Ignorance, prejudice and fear can and are without a doubt linked to one another. Fear is found within ignorance which leads to prejudice. An educated person should not be fearful of the unknown and automatically judge before learning and understanding more.
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Ignorance, fear, and prejudice are all related because they are but one large veil that society tends to wear. Ignorance is the stem of both fear and prejudice, for it is human nature to fear the unknown. Those plagued by the menace of ignorance are severely handicapped because they make poor judgments based off information that is corrupt; this then causes them to build prejudices against others and even to fear them. The social manifestations of the combination of fear, ignorance, and prejudice are racism, sexism, and all the “isms” that we have so shamefully acknowledged. However, the true heart of the problem in all of this isn’t “not knowing” but “not wanting to know”. This election season has made it ever so clear that we in the United States are a lot more ignorant than we like to project ourselves. In fact most people do not acknowledge their prejudices because they are never forced to face them in a direct manner and continue living their lives on the highest moral pedestal. However, this year, 2008, we have as a country finally been thrust into an election filled with prejudices and fear. Barack Obama’s nomination has shown how truly divided this nation is over racial acceptance, it makes us question the supposed increase in social acceptance since the civil rights era. John McCain’s nomination shows that we are not prejudice free because many who question him, question his age rather than his political positions. It has also been the best and worst of times for women in politics, although it is truly monumental to have witnessed such a female presence. This becomes evident in the fact that the media scrutinized the women with more intensity than they did the men. It was really disheartening to listen to countless news shows in which they slammed Hilary Clinton, not on political grounds but such things as, her husband’s extramarital affairs, something which she had no control over. However, the media completely seemed oblivious to John McCain’s extramarital affairs, which were conscious decisions. Is this the representation of how accepted women in America are? If so it is most dismal and disappointing. Yet many of us in the United States claim that our country is the beacon of morals to the rest of the world. Is that really so? We can only accept this if we wish to be ignorant. For it is not only the “racist” rural blue collar workers to be blamed as the media projects, but all of us “intellectual” urban folk who suppress our prejudices because we cannot bear the fact that we too are ignorant and have yet to become truly “open minded”. Ignorance, prejudice, and fear can only be overcome if they are faced, because they cannot be suppressed forever as we have seen and are seeing in this election.
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More commonly than not, ignorance,fear,and prejudice are found together,and tend to make any negative situation worse,and worse.
An obvious, and all too familiar example of these three working together, is the view and bias opinion of the United States, on people of the Middle Eastern decent. How did this happen? Did the people of the United States always have such views? The answer is no. It all began on one horrible day, just over seven years ago. A popular “clan” of Muslim radicals planned major attacks on 3 Major U.S. landmarks. Due to the fear that was brought out in the American people, by this attack, it became a necessity to reciprocate, and pinpoint an object to blame for such mayhem. Because of the crazed state of mind our nation as a whole was in, due to the fear they were felt, empowered themselves to find someone to blame. And if this group of people were correctly commissioned by ignorance, they potentially could be grasped by the nation as responsible for these grewsome attacks. As more and more of our population began to find the people of Middle Eastern decent accountable for the devastation brought upon us, prejudice came into play. The prejudice concocted by our nation is a serious problem. 2,558 days after the attacks it has yet to die down.
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To me, ignorance, prejudice and fear go together perfectly. Ignorance can lead to prejudice or fear and sometimes both. A great example of the cycle of ignorance-prejudice-fear would be the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both groups have been fighting each other for thousands of years. The fighting has been passed down generation through generation. Both people have lived mostly in complete ignorance of each others culture and there is always prejudice from both sides. Prejudice creates added friction between the two already hostile groups and violence erupts which breeds fear and more prejudice, completing the cycle. The cycle could be broken though if both Israelis and Palestinians learned that besides their cultural differences, if the effort was made, both cultures could live in peaceful coexistence with one another. With ignorance, this world would be a much better place, with a lot less violence, no discrimination and people living in much less fear of their neighbor.
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Ignorance, prejudice, and fear are all closely interrelated. Or, more accurately, ignorance is closely linked to prejudice, and to fear. Prejudice and fear are generally related only when they stem from ignorance. In other words, ignorance is the root cause of these problems. And most of the time, it is not the ignorance that stems from a lack of information, for that ignorance can be forgiven and corrected, as we are not born with infinite knowledge. Ignorance becomes a problem mainly among those who are willfully ignorant. Those who have no desire to learn the truth are often those who are the most problematic.
One easily visible example of this is the example of racism. Ignorant people assert that they are somehow superior over another person due to some insignificant difference in what color their skin is or where they were born. But when it is pointed out the they are being judgmental, do they admit fault and concede the point? No, of course not. They continue to display completely unwarranted prejudice and/or fear.
It is human nature to fear the unknown. That is why many fear death or darkness. And yet, in those cases, we cannot know what is there. Those who die are in no condition to tell us what happened to them. And while we can find out what lurks in the darkness, at least one person has to go in unable to know what’s out there. And yet, this is justifiable ignorance. We cannot know the truth, so though we seek it, we can live without knowing it. The problem only occurs when we fear, out of ignorance, that which we are capable of understanding, and would not fear if only we understood. Again, willful ignorance is the only thing stopping us.
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I used to be afraid of bats. I’m really not sure why. Maybe it was the images I saw on television of Count Dracula soaring into the night, or those old silent movie clips from the twenties featuring women running around frantically with bats in their hair. For me, people who tried to protect endangered bats were crunchy granola-toting hippies.
Perfectly legitimate and accurate portrayals that society had graciously handed me. Until one day I was enlightened. Bats are not pit bulls with wings. They are, for the most part, little, scared mammals just trying to eat some mosquitoes. That’s when I realized that “common knowldge” had led me down the dreary path of ignorance.
I have to admit, this upset me. No one likes to learn that they can’t trust everything they have absorbed. Not only that, but I had been led to judge others! Conservationists are not necessarily hippies, or weird.
This example may seem harmless, but it isn’t. Even such simple ignorances and predjudices, no matter how juvenile, create fear. Fear is easily manipulated, transformed to anger and violence, or worse still, apathy. If we cared about bats, would we spray pesticides? Would we need to if there were more around?
Now, that argument is a non-sequitor. Those ideas aren’t inextricably linked, but that’s the nature of ignorance. It only follows to predjudice and fear.
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I believe that fear, ignorance, and prejudice are most certainly inextricably linked. Just by flipping through a history textbook or any book which has to deal with the past, it is pretty evident that these three qualities contributed to many mishaps over time. I believe that ignorance is the base of being prejudice. When someone is ignorant, they may have the feeling that they are superior over the other or feel they are more important. Which is exactly where racism comes into play. Racism is one of our country’s most painful pasts and I definitely believe that excessive ignorance, fear, and the forming of prejudice caused it. These three attributes cause issues in the present, also. Throughout your life, you get the chance to make friends and meet new people. You can also notice that certain groups only talk to the people they want to or are willing to acknowledge them. This causes a sense of fear for others who are concerned about being judged or mocked by the so called “accepted” people. This is an extremely common social problem especially in high school. Sometimes schools are divided into certain cliques, where people have to meet a certain criteria to be able to be accepted. In my opinion, this is one of the highest forms of ignorance there is. So, fear, ignorance, and prejudice definitely share a sense of relativity.
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Personally, ignorance, prejudice, and fear are the major factors that cause many people to make their wrong decisions, such as start a war, kill someone, or even just hate someone. Prejudice creates various problems that affect every country. For example, after the World Trade Center tragedy, people in the U.S. discriminated against Muslims just because the men that were suspected as the attackers happened to be Muslim. Furthermore, another form of prejudice, sexism, plays a great role in this current election. During the Democratic elections, Hilary Clinton was judged and singled out mainly because she was a woman. Although some people may argue against that, no news casters actually debated about her policies when she was running against Barack Obama. In even more recent news, this has had the almost complete opposite effect on Sarah Palin. True, Clinton and Palin are both women but that does not automatically mean that they possess the same beliefs or policies. Therefore, she should not receive as many votes of Clinton supporters as estimated by such prejudiced and ignorant people.
That leads to ignorance. Ignorance is a prominent characteristic around the world. It is the key reason countries declare war on each other. Ignorance creates and even fuels stereotypes. People never struggle to break those stereotypes because their effort would be undermined by the remaining ignorant public. This also connects to the example above. Propaganda can always fool, even if it is a minority, a group of people who is unaware of the developments around them. I remember watching Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine in which Moore illustrates in cartoon– and rather exaggerated– form a brief history of America. The clip’s central idea was fear; fear caused by racial tensions, religious reasons, and basically too much security. Such security creates a safety net that many grow up believing is impermeable. Moreover, when a negligibly important event occurs, they amplify it and make it something to be afraid of. Fear produces a tool that is used to control a population. Fear, like in my first example of discrimination against Muslims, is something linked to both prejudice and ignorance. The three create a cycle that can only be broken if one is removed.
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