Beyond Prejudice: Mean People Suck
  by Dr. Charlie Webb

"If you can't look down on a Nigger, who can you look down on?" (Gene Hackman's screen character in Mississippi Burning, giving his father's answer when asked how he could let an innocent black man be punished for the crime of a white man.)

Prejudice and pecking orders are ancient traditions in human cultures.

We prejudge whenever we assume to know an individual person's character from one presumed group characteristic: Blondes are dumb, Mexicans are lazy, atheists and gays are amoral, Southerners and Fundamentalists are ignorant, etc, etc. Prejudice had purpose and survival value in an ancient tribal world where one had no prospects of getting to know individuals from other tribes. But with the great mixing of today's world, we can judge each person by his actions. Prejudice has become foolishness.

On the other hand, all social animals seem programmed to establish a hierarchy or "pecking order" (named after chickens). One can try to climb the social power ladder by working for self-improvement, by associating with those higher on the ladder, or by "putting down" other people or groups. When we feel like potential winners we tend to use self-improvement. Whenever we feel like losers we rely mainly upon associating with perceived winners and upon finding scapegoats for our problems. If these social coping instincts are in fact genetically programmed and cannot be avoided, they could at least be improved.

First, I think that if we choose to claim association with someone or something in a position of higher power, they should at least be demonstrably real. This is not too much to ask, since more than ninety percent of current wars on planet Earth are holy wars fought for the "benefit" of invisible mutually exclusive "Gods" that have never been shown to exist. Haven't we had enough of this nonsense?

Second, if we must look down on someone, let's choose wisely. We can judge by experience rather than prejudge by ignorance.

My children's generation has solved this problem with their ubiquitous bumper sticker "Mean People Suck." No person or group deserves to be put down unless they have earned it. For example, if an abusive husband, priest, government or religion acts or threatens to beat, rape, bomb, or damn others in order to get their way, they deserve our ridicule and derision.

Would these social strategies work? Yes. Computer simulations with game theory repeatedly prove that nice people do "finish first" if they judge others by experience. In social and business environments the strategy called "Tit for Tat" always wins over all other strategies. Tit for Tat simply starts all interactions with honesty and friendship, and then reciprocates with whatever each party returns (friendship or hostility). This appears to be the ultimate survival strategy.

In other words, individuals and groups that start by being nice and then respond based on experience and knowledge will prosper, while those based on self-righteousness and prejudice will fail. We can live with this.

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