That Ugly Word, Discrimination!

Why do we discriminate? Because every decision we make is discriminatory. Each is simply a trade-off! Perhaps the more relevant question is where lies the “line of discrimination” whereby a choice becomes harmful?

Purchasing a red car versus a blue one seems pretty harmless unless we ascribe feelings to colors, right? But picking a job applicant only because one does not like people of a certain race or sex is obviously harmful, is it not?

What about picking between 2 candidates in which each appears equally competent though one is far prettier? Further assume the candidate's physical appearance will have a profoundly positive impact on potential customers. This choice will clearly necessitate discrimination, but is this the harmless or harmful type? Might one ask why this even matters since a decision must be made anyway?

If one thinks it to be the harmful type, he might be inclined to choose the less attractive candidate so as not to discriminate against those of more modest stock. But then he would be discriminating against pretty people!

Discrimination is unavoidable. It is what we might call a necessary evil. Be advised, much in life is akin to a zero sum game. As such somebody wins and somebody loses! The corollary to this is that we should probably just accept what is.

Hope A Bit Off The Beaten Track

What is hope to me? To see life for what it seems to be and through this attaining peace and happiness through a perspective that comes to terms with this.

Hope to me is not deluding myself with some warm, fuzzy account of life very unlikely to be true merely because it sounds warm and fuzzy. Acknowledging that bad outcomes could only have been worse (this itself usually unconsciously implied), is a decidedly warm, fuzzy account of life.

For if one sees things as they truly are, is it not patently clear things could easily have been better as well? As such, my quest for knowledge and truth does not discriminate against ideas thought to be sad and hopeless or seemingly “inferior” in other ways.

For instance, many see Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas as not worth following only because he led such a seemingly tragic life. But maybe he stumbled upon some real truths and it is only because of this that he became so depressed?

As I seek truth, I refuse to suppress or deny ideas solely because I do not like them.....that would be incredibly irrational and discriminatory. Perhaps rationality is depressing?

Might this be why irrational thinking (a seeming oxymoron?) seems to be the order of the day?

The "Evil" That Is Profiling

Profiling seems to be viewed as one of the most egregious forms of discrimination these days. I have even heard of credit card companies lowering credit limits on certain customers who shop at certain retailers.

What is the purpose of profiling? Is it for the sake of discriminating maliciously? Blindly following the claims of any number of activist organizations, one could naively be led to believe this to be the case. But generally it is done to save money and time on research in order to make viable decisions regarding each person or situation.

When I turned 16 and got my driver's license, my insurance was twice what it was for my sister! It was so unfair and discriminatory. I was outraged! I was just as responsible and just as good a driver as my sister when she got her license. How dare they have the audacity to charge me double! But this is where profiling is the only viable, perhaps even obligatory strategy in dealing with matters such as these. I knew I was responsible and hopefully my parents and closest friends would have agreed just the same but how would an impersonal insurance behemoth have known this? This is why profiling is necessary.

Unless they performed an in-depth interview and perhaps even attempted to really get to “know” Kurt by assigning a truant officer to observe me for a year, what could they possibly have known about me? Little or nothing! They employ actuaries who pore over statistical trends which point to tendencies certain types of people or situations will more likely than not follow. State Farm did not know me. All they knew was that I was a 16 year-old Caucasian male. From that, they generalized that I would be like other 16 year-old Caucasian males they insured. We could say from their limited research, they concluded I would be approximately twice as likely as my sister to file a claim!

Profiling against people of certain sexes, races, religions, etc. is oftentimes a necessary evil. Even if one argues that certain types of profiling are above and beyond what is necessary, this is arbitrary. In any case, how do we determine the types of profiling that are acceptable or not? Life is unfair. Get over it!