Saturday, May 28, 2005

Double Standardization

Double Standardization, or 'Double Standardism' as i like to call it.
An evaluation made by an individual or a group by comparing one with two standards.

In life we meet strangers and even acquaintances, individuals that are not far different than those of our close friends and family. We hold back to the person on the next table in a cafe. To maybe a person that is worth even your time. But most of the time we're just being defensive and snobbish towards others that offers us a slight gesture of initiative and who try to reach out to others. Society has drawn it's veil and even it's standard and approved 'Social Interaction Guidelines'. We are held back by it.

We can't stand in a lift facing others that we don't know but instead we stare at the buttons or the flashing numbers.
We can't say " Yo nigger!" to a black if you're white. But it's cool for blacks to call that among themselves.
We can't speak up our minds to someone that you think is boring- You won't be friends.

Your parents says: "Never talk to strangers." But what if the stranger was your criteria. You will never know. We all want to meet interesting ,funny, intelligent and beautiful people, don't we? We all do.
There are many instances where we offer strangers with greater deserving respect than our own family. You do things that you hate with a smile and you pass that plate of celery with a frown. The phrase: "Strangers are just friends waiting to happen," either that or rape in a dark alley waiting to happen.

If we treated everyone the same like our best friends, wouldn't the world be the least better?
We want to meet fascinating, witty, intellectual and charming people. What if your best friend didn't had these characters, what if no one did ever stand by you over the times. We look for criteria in people, we treat people absurdly different to those that possessed these criteria. We're all bias.
Nothing happens by accident, we chose who to be our friends. We look for 'friendship material'.
We make mistakes, often errors that were made are set in motion. Changes sealed in eternity. Sometimes we say the wrong things or did things that others won't like. The irony of it is that someone once close to you(Eg: Ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, Ex-spouses) treats you differently after an irreversable mistake.

The ideal of treating everyone equally is perfection. I'm always finding that perfection, we can't dispute the fact that we can never be perfect. Perfection is nothing but a stale-sang song. Suddenly the song by Simple Plan came to mind. Ever gave that song a deeper reflection, how you sing to it without considering the retardness it sang? You don't have to apologize when you're imperfect.
The concept of perfection alone is unachievable. Along with others like happiness and love. These concepts is nothing without entities such as hatred or sadness-they are after all it's direct opposites of it's element. Antithesis are necessary.

We're just mere humans, we're flawed because we're have emotions.
Hey, let's face it. No one is perfect.

2 comments:

houng said...

love your post, and i agree, we're out there searching for those we can call friends... yet maybe there's no perfect friend unless you just reach out to people around you. hmmm similar to what i read and thought about in devotion today, also a bit related to my latest post, which is not this flashy. Anyway, curiously, i just submitted a short film script about a rape in a dark alley.

Prince of Darkness said...

It's a fact that everyone is applying double standarism I would say. Ok one good example would be from myself. Here I dun meant to insult anyone ok but hey, this is me. To be frank, I am racist, esp to Malays, but not all of course. I do have Malay friends just that it's minority. If there are two people who need help, clinging on the cliff for example, one Malay and one English, I would definitely help the English up first then only the Malay, unless the Malay is someone that I know. You know me Stan.

Other than the example above, believe it or not, (not Ripley’s) most ppl would have a double standards imposes on their family members. They would rather threat outsiders better than their own family members.

No offence reader, just reality.