Beyond Feelings - Vincent Ruggiero [22]
Henrietta: so now you're a great foe of discrimination. How come you're not complaining that men haven't got an equal opportunity to participate half-naked in mud-wrestling contest? And why aren't you protesting the fact that women are paid less for doing the same jobs men do? You're a phony, Burt, and you make me sick.
Burt: Name calling is not a sign of a strong intellect. And why you should get so emotional over some lawyer's protest, I can't imagine. I guess it goes to show that women are more emotional than men.
1 "Couple Awaits Resurrection of Their Son," Binghamton Press, August 27, 1973, p.11A. Also, "Two Arrested in Son's ;Faith Heal" Death," Binghamton Press, August 30, 1973, p.8A.
2 "20/20," ABC News, July 22, 1982
3 "Aid for Aching Heads," Time, June 5, 1972, p.51.
4 Francis D. Moore, "Therapeutic Innovation: Ethical Boundaries…," Daedalus, Spring 1969, pp.504-05
5 Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Sociology, Sex, Crim, Religion, and Education, Volumes 1 and 2 (New York: Appleton, 1904).
6 "Egyptian Artifacts Termed Fakes," The (Oneonta) Star, June 16, 1982, p.2.
7 "Which Psychiatrist Can a Jury Believe?" New York Times, January 21, 1973, Sec. 4, p.7.
8 Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Book I, 1620. For further discussion of these errors, see The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Book I (New York: Macmillan, 1967), pp.237-38.
9 John Lock, The Conduct of the Understanding, part 3.
10 "Hashaholics," Time, July 24, 1972, p.53.
11 Walter Sullivan, "New Object Seen on Universe Edge," New York Times, June 10, 1973, p.76
12 Karl-Erick Fichtelius and Svere Sjolander, Smarter Than Man? Intelligence in Whales, Dophins and humans, translated by Thomas Teal (New York: Random House, 1972), pp. 135-36.
13 "A Current Affair," Fox TV, April 28, 1989.
14 "Bars' Ladies' Nights Called Reverse Sexism," Binghamton Press, January 12, 1983, p.5B.
P1-C05-6
CHAPTER SIX
THE BASIC PROBLEM: "MIND IS BETTER"
It's natural enough to like our own possessions better than other people's possessions. (One exception to the rule occurs when we are envying others. But that is a special situation that doesn't contradict the point here.) Our possessions are extensions of ourselves. When first graders turn to their classmates and say, "My dad is bigger than yours" or "My shoes are newer" or "My crayons color better," they are not just speaking about their fathers or their shoes or crayons. They are saying something about themselves: "Hey, look at me. I'm something special."
Several years later those children will be saying, "My car is faster than yours," "My football team will go all the way this year," "My marks are higher than Olivia's." (That's one of the great blessings of students – though they may have to stoop to compare, they can always find someone with lower grades than theirs.)
Even later, when they've learned that it sounds boastful to say their possessions are better, they'll continue to think they are: "My house is more expensive, my club more exclusive, my spouse more attractive, my children better behaved, my accomplishments more numerous."
All of this, as we have noted, is natural, although not especially noble or virtuous or, in many cases, even factual. Just natural. The tendency is probably as old as humanity. History records countless examples of it. Most wars, for example, can be traced to some form of "mine is better" thinking. Satirists have pointed their pens at it. Ambrose Bierce, for instance, in his Devil's Dictionary, includes the word infidel. Technically, the word means "one who is an unbeliever in some religion." But Bierce's definition points up the underlying attitude in those who use the word. He defines infidel this way: "In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who des."1
For many people, most of the time, the "mine is better" tendency is balanced by the awareness that other