Tabula Rasa

I diverge from discussing writing today. Perusing CNN.com this morning, I camd upon this article. It’s about how pretty girls can potentially be bad friends. It was written by a not-so-pretty girl, of course. The writer seeks sympathy from her readers for her lack of beauty and then tries to prove that she is not only smarter than most pretty girls, but better. At least that’s how I read the article.

Do other or all women really sink to this level? Are looks so Goddamn important that girls define their friendships as ‘the pretty girl’ and the ‘ugly girl?’ I don’t give two shits if a girl is pretty or ugly. I just don’t care. I want friends I can relate to, that share common interests, and can have deep, reflective conversations with me. So far, I can’t say that many women, pretty or ugly, have been able to do that. Does that make me better then them? Hell no! It just means I have a specific type of ‘friend’ I need and I have found few in my life worth keeping around. But I wouldn’t say that I fail to be friends with people because their looks impede me.

Back to my reason for posting. Americans put labels on everything nowadays. And that can be a very scary thing.

If we are only what our labels present, then we cannot grow or expand. As soon as we label a person, even before knowing them, we’ve judged them. People think pretty women are all dumb. We hate men in suits because they MUST be Wall Street vampires. We detest hippies in their tie-dye shirts because they’re just milking off the welfare system. There are so many labels that not only hurt us, but contribute to the degeneration of our society. With these labels we can’t have conversations without judgment. We can’t progress forward.

An example of this problem is with the recent uproar over Obama’s school speech. A major source interviewed a parent from Atlanta who was in opposition to the speech, most notably the homework assignment. As he spoke, the newscaster sniggered and asked, “You must be Republican, right?” The man replied that he wasn’t, but aligned with the Libertarian party. (Score for Libertarians!) Snide questions like the newscaster’s are just as asinine as the article about a woman who doesn’t think pretty women make good friends.

Labels are labels, people. It is wrong whether it is labeling someone a Republican b/c they oppose Obama or labeling them a shitty friend b/c they are pretty.

Whatever happened to John Locke’s philosophy? We aren’t born with innate ideas or judgments. Tabula rasa! We are free of corruption. And most of all, we are free of labeling people in ways that injure society. If we could strive to think with Locke’s blank slate, I believe some of the issues in this country would dissolve or at least we would progress toward a healthier, happier society instead of remaining in our present poisonous state.