Friday, February 01, 2008

Idealism. Labelism. Bagism.

If it ends with -ism it seems likely to become a problem, for someone, someday.

That's been my observation and experience.

Ideologies. Labels. Imaginary boundaries. Is. Is not! An illusion of information.

We bundle up some things we know believe, slap a label on the bundle, and talk as if everything worth saying can be delivered in a bag with a label. Eventually Later Soon we begin to talk as if only the label matters, as if everything we need to know can be conveyed merely by the label. Sometimes we seem to forget what we put in the bag, we're so busy announcing its label.

I thought about calling that phenomenon “bagism”, but someone else got there first. Same with labelism. Even ismism.

Good grief, what's left?

Well, how about breaking that habit?

 

1 comment:

GreenSmile said...

this notion overlaps a bit with "categoric thinking" and I think it is actually wired into us: using categories and stereotypes is wrong but its a fast way to come to a decision in the face of complex information and even though the damage of oversimplifying is severe, one generally has a lot of company and social support for working this way. It is going to help you find a crowd to run with, and get the assurance of fellows who share your purported interest. That assurance is trumping the alleged issue in the claimed interest. Having a crowd is just something most of us apes need. "Thinking" in stereotypes gets you a crowd by default.