by Michael T. Heath

Created on: May 20, 2008   Last Updated: October 21, 2008

Not At Birth

We come into this world with open arms and open minds. All we need is provided for us, and we start to grow. When our brains are mature enough we pick up words and concepts from those we spend the most time with: parents, caregivers, siblings and relatives. During this phase of our young lives as we begin processing the concept of "people." We are taught who is family, and who is an outsider. We learn to trust those close to us and be wary of people our family considers dangerous, or untrustworthy. This "socialization" goes on for the rest of our lives. We pick up signals from those we trust - people we interact with regularly - and those signals tend to train us to follow along with the group-think about outsiders. Are thy like us? Friend or foe? These basic instincts are learned from a lifetime of interaction among similar groups of people. Outsiders traditionally get treated with suspicion until they prove themselves to be trustworthy to the group. This kind of acceptance is hard to come by since it overturns preconceived notions of who to believe. It rocks the boat we stand in.

Socialization gives us structures we can live with such as government, religion: a matrix which people around the globe can identify quickly and safely. Socialization brings us common languages to share interests. It spreads ideas like a sort of primitive-but-sophisticated internet: once we learn the ropes, we get it.

But socialization has a dark side, too. Like a virus which is passed easily from brain to brain with words and actions, bad concepts can take an unhealthy deep root in the collective consciousness of very large groups of us and resist reasonable attempts to change them. Prejudices borne on ill currents of our hidden history survive despite every honorable attack on their credibility. Racism still struggles to justify itself in today's world in the face of science, of philosophy, of human decency. Like a super poison ivy growing wherever it can, the origin of the host plant lies far below the surface and won't allow itself to be pulled completely out of the ground. This evil thing has a life of it's own, it seems. However, the ground itself isn't quite as hospitable to the re-growth of old hates as before. More and more, we're getting a new view of ourselves and deciding to change a few ugly characteristics we've used as rules for life since God only knows when. The serious look in the mirror was long overdue, and won't do us a bit of harm.

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