Hypocrisy

5/25/00

As with most of these things, I'm going to leave out peoples' names.  Many of you reading this will know who some of the people involved are, but their specific identities aren't important for making the point I want to make, so I'm not bringing them into it.  This is sort of an expansion on the part of my last essay (Trust and Interbeing) dealing with the animosity between "preps" and "freaks."

Earlier today, the hypocrisy among both groups became apparent once again.  Quite frequently, I am in classes with "preps" and their conversation turns against one of the "freaks."  This usually involves no depth beyond "she's such a bitch" and so on, along with various rumors about the person.  This always bothers me, because the conversation never involves a single person who actually knows whomever they've decided to badmouth that particular day, and therefore none of them know any of the possible (and quite valid) reasons for why the person acts that way.  One of these reasons is probably the meanness of the very people making fun of the person.

This half of the animosity, "preps" against "freaks" because they are different and think for themselves, is the more widely-exposed type.  I'm not saying that it isn't a real problem that needs to be dealt with, I'm just saying that "freaks" can be just as quick to judge somebody they don't actually know as "preps" are.  This morning, our school had the athletics awards ceremony.  Right now, I'm not going to dwell on the fact that the whole fucking school has to go to this event, whereas academic awards will be given at a ceremony tonight, to which even the awards recipients themselves don't need to go.  Rather, I'll save that complaint for another time.

Anyway, the girl who received more awards than anybody else, mainly for being a "scholar-athlete," happens to be the principal's daughter.  Obviously, large numbers of people took the sour-grapes attitude and said that she's only getting these awards because of her dad, rather than by any merit of her own.  Of course, not a one of these people, many of whom happened to be "freaks," knows this girl any better than the "preps" know them.  They were just as quick to judge her as people are to judge them.

As you've probably noticed from previous essays, I'm not a very big fan of ignorance in general.  One form of ignorance that bothers me more than others is hypocrisy.  Hypocrites, in addition to often being ignorant of what kind of people they dislike for no real reason, are also ignorant of their own flaws.  "Freaks" often dress differently to protest against people who judge based on appearance, then they turn around and judge somebody as being a mindless conformist based on how they dress and who they hang out with.  Did anybody ever think that possibly the reason some of them hang out with "preps" is because "freaks" won't accept them for who they are?

Sure, they may have to keep quiet about their beliefs among the generally more conservative "preps," but they would have to change to be among more liberal "freaks" who don't always accept people who do well in school, because they see it as conforming to "The System."  Let me tell you, as interesting as the poets, artists, and musicians who can be found among "freaks" may be, they're not going to have much luck changing the world from "the outside."

One might argue that it's society's own fault for pushing them "out" in the first place, and I would have to agree (see my essay on our ill society).  However, that is how it is, and once a person is on "the outside," it's often too late to do much about it.  On the other hand, far too many people on the inside forget who they really are and become the mask they've been wearing all this time in an attempt to "fit in."

If any change is going to come, it has to come from the middle.  Those of us who can fit into mainstream society without forgetting who we really are make up this middle ground.  While I am very intelligent and do well in school, I'm not blind to the fact that using education simply to increase my own eventual power and prosperity doesn't do much good.  I know that everybody acts in what they believe to be their own best interest.  I also know that we're all connected, and that my best interest lies therefore in the well-being of others.  I have many talents that most people don't have, and the best thing I can do is use these talents to get "ahead" in life, gaining enough power to actually improve the lives of others.

One of the greatest problems with our society is that most of the people who are genuinely concerned for others have been pushed to the outside of society, where they don't have the resources to actually help people.  I see myself as one of the people who, in addition to having the right talents for "traditional" success (go to a good college, get a good job, make good money), has the awareness necessary to effect positive changes in the world around me.  The principal's daughter happens to be another one of these people.

Unfortunately, most of the liberals at my school think she is necessarily conservative, because of who her friends are and the fact that she appears, from the outside, to conform to "The System."  They don't know how different she actually is, once you get to know her.  She is for welfare and against capital punishment, she is not a fundamentalist Christian, rather she is a Catholic and is quite open-minded religiously.  While many people in Allegan probably read TIME Magazine to get the viewpoint of the radical left, it's where she gets information on the "conservative" viewpoint, putting her farther to the left than most Democrats.

However, to fit in with most of the other "good students," some of us don't make a big deal about political views.  If they knew what I thought about politics and religion, many of my current friends wouldn't like me as much.  Of course, if I made a big deal about my feelings on the value of a good education and the necessity for some level of conformity, I would likely grow apart from another group of friends.  When among "preppy" friends, I stay out of conversations in which people are put down for being individuals.  Among "freaks" I keep quiet about the people they're putting down for conforming.

Somehow, it is okay to be prejudiced against one type of person, but being prejudiced the other way is wrong. There are many hypocrites on both sides of every issue.  Pro-lifers who are for capital punishment and vegetarians who think it's wrong to kill animals for food but have no moral problem with abortions.  Individualists who conform to each other in order to fit in with non-conformists and conformists who selfishly try to make themselves stand out above the others while still fitting in.  "Small-government" Republicans who like big defense budgets ad government regulation of abortion while wanting less regulation of businesses and owning guns and "big-government" Democrats who, while desiring increased business regulation and gun control, want the government out of the abortion issue and a small defense budget.  The list goes on to include any major issue throughout history, but this is the end of the page, so I'm not going to write any more.


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