For example, my tremor was particularly prominent one
afternoon. I went into a shop and the person behind the counter said to me,
“are you feeling cold, sir?” Maybe I missed the joke but I decided to be
honest, so I said, “no, I’ve got Parkinson’s disease.” A flood of apologises
emerged from the person. He wished me a good evening and I said, “I will and
I’ll warm up too!” A little bit of self-deprecating humour showed that his
supposed superior response to my tremor was totally misplaced. Maybe I taught
him something that day.
Another example I’ve encountered is when people equate my
physical disability with my level of intelligence and talk…really…slowly…to…me.
I happen to have a doctorate (DPhil) in Genetics from Oxford University so I
think I understand what you are saying! Such “do…you…under…stand?” people
should assume their listener does understand and then, if the need arises,
modify the assumption.
A far harsher form of preconception you may encounter is
prejudice, which can be defined as judging people (usually negatively) based on
physical characteristics or ethnicity or disability. I believe such a judgement
is absurd. We were thrown into the world in a particular state when we were
born (Heidegger calls this our “thrownness”). Nobody is responsible for their
thrownness; we didn’t choose whether we were male or female, had dark or light
skin, were susceptible to Parkinson’s or not etc. Therefore judging a person’s
thrownness is an empty judgement; the judgement doesn’t apply to the person
being judged. Indeed, it’s a judgement about nobody. Judgements should be made
on the basis of who people are, not what they are.
I feel sorry for people who live their lives without empathy
and self-awareness.
No comments:
Post a Comment