Social Sorting
There is light and darkness. There is love and hate or happy and sad. There is the extraordinary and the insignificant. But most things fall somewhere in between each of these extremes. Real things aren’t polarized; they are complex and subtly intertwined. We create these extreme terms for the sake of simple cognition, but when these categories actually begin interfering with correct cognition, we must take a step back and remember that life really is all about shades of grey.
If you take a look around you may notice that there is a dizzying array of categories that people are placed in. We label and are labeled, using polarized terms to reference ourselves and one another in religion, politics, gender, class, and many more areas of critique. It seems as if there is no personality, belief, attitude, behavior, or even preference that is sacred enough or even unique enough to be spared categorization and the resulting generalizations.
The biggest reason that these categories have become overwhelmingly predominant is the benefits they give to corporations and institutions. People are grouped and generalized so that they can be more clearly targeted, referenced, avoided, or judged. The grander the category, the easier it is to instigate social movements or to sway popular opinions. The more specific the category, the easier it is to make a sale. For these two reasons, categorizing people from the greatest possible commonality down to the seemingly most unique characteristic has become the norm.
If this tendency to categorize and group people were to remain in the minds of marketers and politicians, the pitfalls would be far fewer. But with the internet and the resulting tailored media consumption, the public has begun adopting, creating, and sustaining these categorizations on their own.
It is almost universally true that absolutes are nonexistent except as mental constructs. But when it becomes commonplace to view people in reference to what category they fit into, such absolutes begin to appear real. The illusory constructs of thought begin to seem like real defining characteristics. Thinking that polarities actually exist leads to the overall perception of separation and competition between one another. This can easily pave the way for the rationalization of things like envy, greed, and war.
We owe it to ourselves and to one another to break free from these categorizations, to remember that nothing really fits comfortably in a category, no matter how big or small. When we break out of them ourselves, we allow our spirit’s true creative freedom to shine. We also give ourselves new eyes to see the intricacies that make each person unique, intricacies that are often glossed over when we think of them in reference to their grouping.
Perhaps one of the best ways to combat the increasingly common categorization and polarization of people is to practice meditating upon compassion. Compassion, by its very nature, breaks down the boxes that people are placed within. With compassion we see the details that make people individual, the lesser known intentions rather than just the observable acts. Practicing compassion helps us to recognize the spirit within, the inimitable consciousness of each person. When we see the spirit within rather than just the shell of a human, we know that there is no way to group or even to compare. Compassion also helps us to avoid categorizing ourselves; it reminds us that we are really just potential and that we can choose to change how we are expressing that potential whenever we please.
I intend to set aside time every day specifically for compassion and I invite you to join me. Let’s remember that we are not the names used to describe us or the categories used to define us. Even as the population increases and individuality becomes itself a cliché, let’s remember that every single person is a unique expression of energy and we owe it to ourselves and to one another to appreciate that expression in its fullness.
For More Visit cristenrodgers.com
