In a message dated 97-08-10 22:11:27 EDT, you write:
<< < I know prejudice when I hear it: >>

Kirt:
>I would call religion a choice for most adults but you're right on about
the others. Even so, I don't think prejudice is necessarily limited to
charcteristics which are due to the luck of the draw. Is it justified
against yuppies, bums, politicians, dentists, magneticists, the
nipple-pierced, the tie-wearing, or the users of certain computer
platforms? To pre-judge folks based on lunch seems the silliest of all, but
I imagine the same folks would judge me for a leather jacket so who knows,
eh?

Bob:
Kirt, your comments must have been important to me, my mind brought them to
the conscious level several times this week!  Seems our society teaches us to
accept the idea that JUDGEMENT, per se, is evil.  "Prejudice" I take to mean
judging someone before knowing the facts & that's certainly a stupid thing to
do .  But the way we'rtaught to use the word is quite different.  It's
politically-correct meaning is "judging" -- with or without facts.

The main thing that separates us from other animals is conceptual thought
(man = the "rational" animal).  Judging is not only our right, but it's
MORALLY right & is our DUTY if we're to live rationally (my apologies to
whomever requested to not be told what's moral).  So let's be PROUD of being
judgemental, we all do it anyway.  If every bald boring Dutchman you ever met
immediately beat your wife & raped your cat, would you invite me into your
home as readily as you invited in that FIRST bald boring Dutchman (assuming
wife-beating & cat-raping were not amusing to you that nite)?

I doubt that NOT judging is even POSSIBLE to a thinking human, even 'tho
PRETENDING to not judge is possible ... & probly unhealthful, eh, Ellie?


Peter:
>Boredom is the silent cry for attention of an unloved child. ;-)

Bob:
I'm frequently bored listening & observing most people.  You've labelled me
as a revbellious teenager & now as an unloved child.  You are causeing me to
think.  And you NEVER bore me!  Thank you :-)

Proudly judgemental, Bob