Quote: Beardguy57 said: Humans LOVE to label other humans. It's at the very heart of our nature, so that we can understand and process information quickly.
As for me, I prefer labels such as " Dry Clean Only" , " Cold water, medium heat in dryer ", or " No Bleach. "
Labels just keep us from taking others seriously.
I think it's an interesting point re: how people label each other. Labeling is useful in the sense that it saves people time in casual conversation from having to ask a litany of questions about the person. For example, if you know someone has grown up in Beverly Hills, you can assume they're pretty well off--and so on. Everyone uses paradigms.
What is disturbing is the types of filters that people put in place. I believe strongly in the merits of an individual--how they conduct themselves, how they contribute to society--leaving everything else as relatively extraneous (I say "relatively" because understanding peoples' backgrounds is an important thing with regard to how they became who they are, but not more important then the present). When people look past merit in favor of race, sexual orientation and the like, I've found I'm often in the presence of a weak, fearful mind.
