I could never understand assumptions. I know, or have an idea about, why people make assumptions about everyone they meet. It’s an instinct. They want to categorize everything into neat little boxes.
We have middling brains, for a middling life and middling intellect for a middling understanding of the world around us. Hence the need to group everything into ever larger conglomerations so it is easier for us to understand them.
In most cases it works well. “Stone – hard- hurts when thrown” subdivided into chalk to granite gives us an idea ready made, rather than having to start the process afresh for every piece of mineral we come across. This is, of course, just one example. There are numerous, and we could group them as well.
But does it really work when applied to humans? To people? We classify humans in so many ways, by race, by colour. by gender, by region of origin, by nationality, by religion, by age, the list goes on and on. Italians “tolk” funny. Canadians always say, “eh?”, Punjabis end each word in a hard consonant(“WaaTERa”), Tamils have that accent (“Yum Yay” for MA), Muslims are all bloodthirsty, Chinese are inscrutable and dodgy, Jamaicans have rasta locks….
It goes on to smaller and smaller groupings, but why bore everyone with endless examples? What I want to ask is, Is it really true? Are we all minor variations from some limited set of type specimens? Aren’t we more complex, more faceted, more variable, just more? If we aren’t even “we” at various points in our lives, how can anyone presume to put us in one specific basket based on nothing more than the accident of birth, name, geography, colour..?
I never presumed to assume so. And as I’ve said before, I was foolish enough to think that the world thinks as I do. But y’all (I do love it, so there!) have helped me grow out of that illusion as well. And no, I am not talking about the wonderful people I’ve met here, on WordPress. I’m grateful you are alive, and in my life. There are times when I can only look to you for help, succor, a straw…and you’ve never disappointed me.
But do any of you also believe in stereotypes? Do you bunch up people into cozy little brackets to make it easier to deal with them all?
And do you believe that we should then call them “monotypes” because even stereotype implies two dimensions? I look forward to your answers.
hbhatnagar 
Our own experience also plays a big part of it. It take maturity to be open minded. Your insights remind me the post I did based on Maya Angelou’s story:
https://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/throwback-thursday-the-epitome-of-sophistication/
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Posted by Amy | 10/06/2015, 8:50 PMI see that now, I was foolish to think it was a basic human tendency.
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 10/06/2015, 9:09 PMAs long as the superiority is in human’s genes (and I think it is), then, it’s human tendency. Perhaps, our experience conforms that… Kind of complicated.
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Posted by Amy | 10/06/2015, 9:28 PMI still am in my little neat box here, because I “tolk” funny 😛
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Posted by HeavyCloud | 09/06/2015, 9:48 PMWhy you do dat, Miguel? Eh? Why you do dat?
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 09/06/2015, 10:07 PMHAHAHA!!! Try Giorgio, Miguel is Spanish!!! 😀
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Posted by HeavyCloud | 09/06/2015, 10:10 PMWe say that we should not but unknowingly we do.
“Hey! Do you see that guy? Looks Punjabi”
“How can you say?”
“His laugh dude!”
Is it judging, categorizing, stereotyping, I dunno!
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Posted by Kritika Vashist | 09/06/2015, 9:38 PMI think there’s a finer line here, we might judge a habit, or a person in his/her entirety..
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 09/06/2015, 10:06 PMAwww :p
But yeah before WP i guess I was delusional and see we all evolve 🙂 and its a good thing!
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Posted by izza ifzaal | 09/06/2015, 8:57 PMI hope it is!
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 09/06/2015, 9:03 PMGood goood! 😀
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Posted by izza ifzaal | 09/06/2015, 9:08 PMHey you take that back! No one calls me good! 😀
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 09/06/2015, 9:09 PMCognitive limitations and /or cognitive inertia . Schemas work well na!!! May be that’s why classifications make life easy . Am not condoning stereotypes but yeah the pigeon hole people perspective is a short cut I guess I am guilty of adhering to .
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Posted by priyankamoraes | 09/06/2015, 8:49 PMI think we all are, to a greater or lesser extent, isn’t it? What was your immediate thought on finding out that I was from the uber aggressive north of India for example? 🙂
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 09/06/2015, 9:02 PMLol . I won’t go there ! Reading your posts however I knew you were mensa! !! That’s a category you shouldn’t mind being fitted into !
Ok to let you in on a secret I thought you’d be a pot bellied middle aged north Indian mouthing cuss words for punctuation marks !!! I was so ooooooo wrong !!!! Remember the farewell picture ????
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Posted by priyankamoraes | 09/06/2015, 9:20 PMPot bellied? Egad!
Middle aged? Well I am on the wrong side of 35
Cuss words? I’ve been known to use them on occasion
So not ALL wrong… 😀
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 09/06/2015, 9:34 PMEven though we do think, we don’t judge and all, we end up judging even without our knowledge! That is what I feel
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Posted by trablogger | 09/06/2015, 8:24 PMTrue. It happens at times on an instinctual level. I try to guard against it though.
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Posted by hbhatnagar | 09/06/2015, 9:01 PMYea, we guard it once it happens 😀
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Posted by trablogger | 09/06/2015, 9:11 PM