I suspect we’re all guilty of it. It being the practice of seeing things ONLY from where we sit. Of seeing things in ways that are colored by the ways we have always seen things.
I’m guilty of it all the time.
I look at people, react to people and come to conclusions based on my past experiences. This is my perspective.
Lot’s of times it works like it should; dark alleys get avoided.
Some times it doesn’t work like it should.
People complain all the time about working conditions in the Chinese “sweet shops”. Or slave labor in India and elsewhere. I’ve tried in the past to make the point that everyone objects to the type of labor that is coerced; that is forced. But there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of a widespread problem. In fact, employers are having to INCREASE pay to entice workers to come work for them.
I always walk away from such efforts feeling that I didn’t make my point.
This morning TJIC did:
Chinese factory conditions may not be the exact cup of tea for a San Francisco graphic designer or a Connecticut non-profit ecologist grant writer … but they’re, by definition, better than all the other alternatives available to the Chinese workers (or the factories would find it impossible to staff up).
Here’s to hoping that the aliens land near me!
