Categorically Canted
Collective Inconsistencies
Perhaps the collective noun for humans should be a fickle. Lately a lot more people appear to be more arbitrary and capricious about their judgments than in times past, well at least since there were teeming masses of uneducated, downtrodden folks. Oh wait. Anyway, I’d like to point out a few examples of double standards, of food for the goose but not the gander sorts of situations.
Hanging Out Clothes
There’s a big push to use renewable energy. What could be more eco-friendly than hanging your clothes out on a line to dry? Passive solar excellence for the win. But wait, certain groups of people (with money) don’t want you to hang your clothes out in their neighborhood. Why not? They believe it is low class to hang laundry outside. Now I get that some people do hang out their clothes because they don’t have a dryer. Maybe they can’t afford a dryer. There are others though who do have a dryer but are interested in saving money and the planet, not to mention having their sheets smell like heaven. Some of the people who dry their clothes outside by choice rather than necessity may have also chosen not to purchase a dryer even though they could afford to do so. I was one of those people. My state actually passed a law that prohibited towns, neighborhoods, homeowner associations, or anyone from banning the hanging of laundry outdoors. Go Vermont!
Mass Transit
In the town where I worked for many years, there were certain groups of people (with money) who would never dream of taking a bus. Many workplaces in town provided free passes to the city buses and to linked area buses. The routes didn’t work for everyone but some of the people who refused to ride the buses did so because of the “type” of people who frequently rode the buses. They called them “those people.” They meant people with less money and education than they had. These were the same people championing diversity. At least with their words. This is why we can’t have nice things.
House Size
Tiny houses and minimalism have become quite popular but people (with money) still judge others by the size of their home or apartment. Years back I lived in a small condo. It was just over 500 sq. ft. Not tiny, but definitely small. Some work “friends” came to my place for a meeting. A few of the people were obviously appalled at the size of my place. Its smallness was an embarrassment based on their standards. I was a professor and an administrator. They didn’t know what to do with their eyes. My place was artful and lovely. They missed all of that. They only saw my failure to live up to their standards.
Assumptions
I read a short story once about a young female doctor working in a remote mountain community in the United States. It took time for the people there to trust her. She visited a family whose grandfather was deaf in one ear. He had been that way for decades. When she shone a light into his ear she discovered a dried pea shell obstructing his canal. She removed it and he could hear again. When we carry our own preconceived ideas and standards into problem situations we do so at our own peril. We end up judging most situations by how we think our views will reflect our self-image back to us. We end up caring more about how we see ourselves and how others will judge us than finding out what’s really happening. Me miss opportunities. We beat our own curiosity into submission to keep it from uncovering a truth we don’t want to see.
Note: The “(with money)” used above includes those who have massive or reasonable amounts of money or who wish they had more than they do.
Cinse Bonino
2023
