Prejudice is a bad prejudice

The very root of this word indicates that prejudice is something that stands before common sense, that is, prevents it from moving forward.

If a person breaks his arm, he, as a rule, immediately consults a doctor. Friends and even unfamiliar people will sympathize with him and, perhaps, even help to manage things that require a certain skill of both upper limbs. However, not all diseases cause such unequivocal sympathy.

In the Middle Ages, European countries were seized with panic: the townsfolk were surrounded by witches from all sides. In order to get into their number, it was enough to have red hair, and sometimes just be a beautiful woman. They checked the witch simply: they tied him and threw him into the nearest pond. If the poor fellow emerged, it was "clear" that she was a witch, and therefore she was to be burned alive ...

Why, in some cases, do people avoid communicating with those who differ from them for some sufficiently abstract sign? Especially if these personal characteristics are not related to possible upcoming joint business? Obviously, there is a prejudiced attitude, that is prejudice. This is imposed by someone or a willingly accepted opinion, carried on a specific person.

There is such a phenomenon as xenophobia, that is, rejection of everything that is peculiar to customs and customs, and sometimes the appearance of residents of other countries and continents. At the same time, many differences are fictitious, and with the light hand of some unkind or stupid person (and possibly a group of people) have become a public opinion. Stereotypes and prejudices against non-Russians take place in almost every country, and attribute to the owners of the skin of a different color or face of another form some rather nasty character traits or a tendency, for example, to a parasitic way of life. So, in the famous fairy tale by Eugene Schwartz, the archivist is convinced that the gypsies are terrible people. He himself did not see any of them.

Numerous examples can be considered agitation campaigns in some republics of the former USSR in the period of its disintegration, when the indigenous inhabitants were conscious of the idea of "insidious invaders", besides drunkards, who at the very time get out of the suitcase straight to the station.

In addition to racial or national, there are also social prejudices. Mostly they are manifested in relation to those who are on other levels of the social hierarchy. More often, more successful fellow citizens experience contempt, and sometimes even hatred, towards the poor, or those whom they consider to be so. However, it happens the other way round, when any successful person is considered a rascal and a thief. Sometimes such moods are heated by politicians, proceeding from some own interests.

And one more kind of bias. Religious prejudice is an intolerance towards people who profess a different faith. It is these differences that often led to wars, the disintegration of prosperous states and genocide. The basis for the propagation of discord was the centuries-old prejudices that somebody did not need to get out of the subconscious mind.

Of course, not all intolerance is vice. There are customs and customs contrary to the norms of a civilized society (for example, cannibalism). But for the most part, prejudice is a very unfortunate phenomenon, which prevents the mutual enrichment of cultures and mutual understanding between such different and always beautiful people.