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Understanding generalization: the most fertile field for prejudices

People who find the differences

Prejudices, more or less truthful, are always based on a single and terrible principle: generalization.

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

In any field, once we have identified the “correct” path (the mainstream direction, etc.) everything that is outside of it, that is different, can be easily grouped into a single negative whole. Once we have chosen which side to stay on, it’s so easy to refuse that can exist many:

Different ways
Better ways
Legit ways
Forced ways
…

Generalization: a useful but dangerous teaching

Let’s be clear, generalizing is a natural and fundamental attitude of any kind of living being and it helps to live: without it, we would never be able to act and to make rapid choices.

The idea of “generalization” comes from the common human experience but is exasperated through school education and often also during our working experiences:

At school – They teach us to summarize (concepts, works of art, etc.), to find fragmentary but identifying data (of a time, of an author, etc.), to replace emotions with mechanical analysis, to eliminate diversity to submit to homologation (etc.)
At work – They force us to follow working times to accomplish productivity schemes (often based on profit rather than quality), to compile statistics (even on human beings), to look at money as a primary generic value (etc.)

The point is that:

If on the one hand, this kind of forcing is essential to live, on the other, it prevents us from having a broad and realistic vision of the world; we will never find 2 equal stones, no summary evaluation can identify the level of preparation of a person, nothing can be grouped without neglecting a multitude of details
While on one hand the synthesis serves and is useful, on the other we can not forget that only in the abstract field of mathematics the numbers can perfectly describe a context; in all the other cases, with each simplification, we are losing an infinite and precious amount of (vital) information
Nothing is completely white or black, everything consists of complex and articulate gray textures; the reality cannot be simplified like an equation or compressed as virtual data, it is made of more and more aspects that can not be ignored
To every difference correspond myriads of similarities and vice versa; to every divergence correspond myriads of convergences and vice versa

Generalizing in secondary life applications is mandatory but to generalize in terms of relevant fields (social relations, science, politics, etc.) is absolutely wrong: from a moral, ethical and above all logical point of view.

A note by Master Kongling – When I was in high school, my philosophy professor (Mario Gamba) always repeated that generalizing is wrong. He pointed out to me how absurd it was to reduce the lives of great thinkers to a few summary lines in a book: people who had made mistakes, felt emotions, changed their minds (etc.). How terribly right he was.

The consequences of generalization in social terms

When we talk about humans, generalizing means to:

Treat the innocent as the guilty
Forget causes and effect
Ignore problems and limits
Lose the biggest part of the whole
Create false distances
Justify abuses
…

Humans cannot be identified and judged in groups. By pursuing this vicious thought, it is easy to become the victim of those who are able to identify common enemies.

Whenever a politician points his / her index finger to identify a group of people to fight (talking about differences related to social class, gender, race, nationality, faction, sex, religion, traditions, the way of acting, etc.) we must be extremely careful, because he / she knows exactly how our mind is structured and:

He / she is trying to present himself / herself as an ally (offering, for example, an excuse for our failures, underlining an injustice that we live, etc.)
He / she is trying to demonstrate to be able to identify dangers / solutions that we do not understand (but that we can easily recognize)
He / she is trying to delude us to be able to show us something that we do not see; he / she is indirectly trying to make us think he / she is better than us (better, a good amplifier of our voice)
He / she is trying to delude us to be better than us (or a promoter of our battles) he / she is proposing himself / herself as a good-natured leader (able to solve our problems)

It is in this way that small and big dictators have gained consense and power (Hitler, Mussolini, etc.): exploiting the (guilty) ingenuity of people who have not been able to recognize their methods.

A note by Master Kongling – There are no good powers. Each time we see someone (even in daily life) trying to indicate and act against a common adversary (a person or a category), we could be in front of a person that (more or less consciously) is cultivating the idea of dominating us (whether it is a colleague from school / work, whether it is a religious or a politician). How many are you coming to your mind?

The weakness is in the mindset

Unfortunately, there are very few people who try to base their convictions on logical processes (read for example the scientific method); in most cases, we prefer to:

Absolutize individual experiences (more or less direct)
Avoid deepening what does not concern us (or does not interest us)
Trust in what most people believe (humiliating our intellect)
Believe in what makes us more comfortable (or that we like more)
Believe in what justifies us (our failures, limits, what excuses us)
Believe in the sources that are closer to us (than to the more authoritative ones)
Believe in what exalts us (or worst in what diminishes others)
Believe in those who have success (to power and above all, to those who like us)
Believe in those who do not upset us (in those who reassure us)
Believe in those who frighten us (in those who indicate a new danger)
Believe in those who promise us what we want (what we need, what we leak, what we envy in others)
…

We are our worst enemy.

How martial arts can work on reducing prejudice

It is by yielding to our weaknesses (fears, desires, etc.) that we fall into the trap of generalization and it is exactly them that a good martial arts course should work on.

Naturally, not all the martial arts, schools and instructors are equal (read Recognize a good / bad master: 5 characteristics and The characteristics of a true master) but through the use of rationality, a serious course should gradually:

Build a basic mind-openness in the students
Teach to understand / accept others and their view of the world
Build self-discipline, the true key to freedom (read Discipline is the key to freedom)

In particular, in 6 Dragons Kung Fu, we also teach how to:

Uncover the communication tricks used by the dishonest people (read for example Deception: the honeycomb structure)
Recognize and connect the small signs of deception
…

In-depth video courses

Mind self-control hacks – How to enhance the functionality of the mind
How to build strong self-discipline – How to build the foundation for any kind of success, in any field
Deception / lie detection: how to – How to spot a lier by reading and crossing his / her communication patterns
Meditation: how to start – How to find the real mental and physical peace

In-depth articles

The right thing to do – Inside, we always know what is the right thing to do
Revenge and resentment, knives taken from the blade side – The true weakness is to give value to the damage suffered

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

Where are prejudices born from in your opinion?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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