“You see us as you want to see us…in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Correct?”

The Breakfast Club, a classic must-see film, depicts high school in a view anyone can relate to. We can all see the classic archetypes of the nerd, the jock, the rebel, within ourselves and that’s part of what helps this movie make an important statement about all of us, but all too often we think about the moral for just a fleeting moment and don’t take the time to truly digest the meaning as it applies in our lives. So, I want to dive into the realm of categorizing individuals by boiling their ideas down to the simplest possible understanding, and how taking the time to understand others rather than dismiss them can lead to (hopefully) real change in how humans treat other humans.

But, before I dive into my thoughts, I want to make it abundantly clear that I am intentionally directing these words at you and me specifically. There is not one person above marginalizing some individual, no matter how accepting you may be. I’m not speaking to some nebulous ‘they,’ this is for you.

This is for you

In life outside of high school archetypes of the brain of the athlete no longer get thrown around, but the name-calling and stereotypical groups still exist. In my opinion, one of the most frustrating and common examples of flippant name calling originates within the dichotomy between naming others as ‘open-minded’ or ‘close-minded’ people. This becomes especially obvious whenever turning to a political talk show. There is a guarantee that at some point one of the talking heads will accuse someone’s brain function to be narrow or closed off to new ideas, and, most of the time, we as viewers accept the name-calling and re-purpose it for everyday use. Suddenly anyone who doesn't agree with my own beliefs becomes close-minded and stubborn. It’s as if I have this box labeled ‘narrow-minded,’ and now I can just throw any idea of person whom I disagree with into and never have to think of it again. Someone says they don’t like bacon? Man they’re narrow-minded, they just can’t see bacon with the complete acceptance of pork products I have.

Now that I've done this, any view other than my own becomes the enemy, or at the very least there is now a defined ‘we’ and ‘they.’ Now we have the clear sides, the bacon-lovers versus the bacon-haters, and life becomes simple. The bacon debate is now in, as Brian would say in the breakfast club, “the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions.”

We all automatically dichotomize the ideas of others while seeing our own in shades of gray. I can be in favor of moderate health care reform, but those darn liberals are destroying the private health care industry or I can be for a change in Social Security while those Tea Partiers are just ruining support for the elderly. It’s true, thinking like this makes life easy; there is always an invisible, ideological enemy out there ready to pounce on your views, and that beast has only the most extreme and unsophisticated approach to their opinion. This mythical battle strikes me as the ultimate irony when the ‘close-minded’ label gets thrown around. Inherently, by naming another person or group as close-minded, are you not also closing your mind to their viewpoint? By attaching a label and dismissing their opinion, you demonize the opposing idea. Obviously, the bacon-haters just don’t understand, they can’t understand why bacon is the spice that makes any food magical. You no longer have to go through the effort of understanding where another individual stands. So, honestly, I think calling someone close-minded, whether intentionally or not is borne out of laziness. Don’t get me wrong, we all do this, because it’s what we are trained to do from an early age. We sort things, blocks, animals, people, Skittles; all get placed in their coordinated groups. But that doesn't make it right to simply dismiss another’s opinion because you see it as closed off to your own.

The result of our categorization is the world we live in, with Republicans and Democrats fighting, entire sections of the population marginalized, and stereotypes developed out of generalizations applied, incorrectly, to groups of people. Type-casting people simply facilitate strains of logic like: John loves bacon, and John also wears glasses, therefore all bacon-lovers wear glasses. While it’s true that this example oversimplifies the situation, the effects of such stereotypes occur every day. Whether someone practicing the Muslim faith is pulled out for a random inspection or a woman with short hair is assumed to be homosexual or any of the plethora of negative cultural stereotypes, we see others “as we want to see them,” each action further reinforcing our baseless stereotypes.

As a result, we all inevitably close our minds to new schools of thought because that’s just how they are, where they refers to a general group of people. Since all of us are continually trained this way, it becomes difficult to truly understand another person’s point of view. It takes a real mental effort to change our deeply held beliefs, but understand we must.

This is the first part of what I plan to be a two part blog, with the next edition being a lot less incriminating and about why understanding others is a beautiful thing, so stay tuned

As always comments are appreciated and feel free to follow me on twitter (@headin_thecloud) or Instagram (@headin_thecloud). Keep your eye on the sky!