Free Autism: Prejudice Essay Example

I would to start my essay with giving my evaluation to the position of Paul Bloom that he stated in the video named «Can prejudice ever be a good thing?» In general I tend to agree with Paul Bloom’s position in regard to prejudice and attitude towards prejudice.
In the very beginning of the video, Bloom says that most of us a full of negative stereotypes connected with prejudice, he takes the quote of William Hazlitt in order to support his introduction thesis. The quote of Hazlitt’s says that «Prejudice is the child of ignorance.»
I tend to agree with Paul Bloom that nowadays society tries to reject prejudice in any form of manifestation and the majority of people find prejudice to be something horrible and unacceptable. But Bloom argues this position, and so do I. I totally agree that prejudice is a natural instinct, and as far as it is natural, there is nothing bad in it.
My opinion is totally the same with what Paul Bloom says in the first part of the video. I also agree that prejudice is natural, and is one of our instincts. This instinct is called to prevent the unwanted effects in the majority of life situations. And this is absolutely normal to use prejudice in order to choose what to do in this or that situation.
Bloom says that prejudice is almost the same thing as guessing. The thing is that we just use different words to explain our choice, but basically guessing is the result of our prejudice, that is the result of our life experience. And this guessing that is so close to prejudice is something that helps us to achieve certain goals and results that are good for us.
My vision is rather simple, all my life experience is a kind of lesson for me. I always try to make right conclusions when I both fail or succeed. I think that everybody will agree that it is quite easy to simply remember the relationship between your attitude and the results that came from your attitude.
I use prejudice in my everyday life and that helps me a lot. When I was a child I drew my attention that people of the same zodiacal sign have pretty much in common. The people of the same zodiacal sign in the most cases have the same positive and negative sides. And in different life situations I always pay attention on this kind of prejudice to figure out who of my friends can help me better to resolve a certain issue.
Theory of deserved reputation, on my opinion, is more likely to be the theory that is pertinent to prejudice or stereotypes. Equally negative perception of groups towards each other from the viewpoint of deserved reputation, contributes to the fact that the group, which had the bias indeed possess certain characteristics that cause rejection of the other groups. Simply saying, the proponents of this approach believe that those minority groups who do not like themselves deserved it by their behavior, causing to his hostility and animosity.(Breen, 2006)
And indeed, the facts argue in the favor of this approach. For example, studies show that the negative attitude of the Irish in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was due to the fact that the natives of Ireland differed from other ethnic groups with drunkenness, pugnacity, unwillingness to work in conjunction with arrogance, lack of consumer culture (in other words, dirt and unsettled place of residence). And though now almost all of it in the past, however, in modern United States level of diseases associated with alcohol use of Irish is in 25 times higher than that of the Italians, and 50 times higher than among Jews.(Breen, 2006)
However, nowadays we face pretty much problems connected with prejudice and stereotypes. Commonly people are used to think that their perceptions and ideas about the things are the same, and if two people perceive the same thing in different ways, one of them is definitely wrong. However, the science of psychology rejects this assumption. Perception of even the simplest ideas is an isolated act, but part of a complex process. It depends primarily on the system in which the object is considered, and from prior experiences and interests of the subject practical purposes. The same book can be quite differently perceived by the reader, bookseller and a man who collects bindings.(Davidson, 2003)
The prejudice might learn the society that there are plenty of situations in life when stereotypes do make sense, and appear to be very rational. People should understand that prejudice is just a side-affect, but the side-affect that is very useful. We should also understand that prejudice is natural, and this is the major fact why prejudice should exist.

References

Breen, R. (2006). Prejudice. Richmond: Trotman.
Davidson, T. (2003). Prejudice. New York: Franklin Watts.
Ninvalle, C. (2004). Stereotypes. Toronto: Toucan Pub.