Shell Star Light To End Prejudice

The shell as metaphor for the human mind - star minds are those without prejudice.  

I like the simple metaphor of an open and closed shell, as an open and closed mind.  A closed mind is hard, it’s protecting itself, it’s keeping any new thing from coming in - this includes both predators, and nutrients.  A clam needs to open it’s shell in order to feed.  People say one must always keep an open mind, but people don’t do that, in fact, they can’t, because instinctually, like a shelled animal, a mind will close in order to protect itself from thoughts, philosophies, politics, ideas, that invoke fear and threat.  It’s easy to say “that’s always a bad thing” - but look at it in another way - what if you were born transsexual, say, and you already overcome so much social pressure and cultural brainwashing in your life just to find your Self.  Plus had to overcome the social shock and derision that’s part of the coming out process.  Then, you’re presented with ideas from Trans Exclusionary Feminists who say you’re not really a woman, you’re not a natural woman, or from psychiatrists who make absurd points that actually aren’t reality based, because they’re only looking at study results from a slanted perspective.  At some point, you have to close your mind to these sorts of ideas, because they are predatory and coming from places of prejudice.  If you’re born non-white in Euro-Am culture, there are so many people who have prejudiced, non-reality based ideas on what kind of person you’re supposed to be - and those prejudiced ideas are interlaced thru movies, television shows, commercials, magazine articles, books - going back for hundreds of years.  So, sometimes minds must close in defense; otherwise one is in danger of coming under the sway of Stockholm Syndrome, you believe those who are prejudiced against you that you’re inferior to them.  This is how prejudiced ideas are predatory.

I’ve always had a hard time knowing when to stop listening to arguments; but i’ve come to see where the dividing line is for me.  When ideas are predatory, rather than nutritious, when they come from a place of prejudice, and try to make me believe that we don’t all have the right to political and social equality.  When people talk out of prejudice, cultural or religious bias, or an inability to accept things that are outside their experience, then those ideas are predatory, they are not only poison, but they can eat your own ideas.  Just as i was convinced i was cisgender, and that trans people were freaks - i was taught to be prejudiced against my own Self.  

When someone whose against marriage equality makes reasonable sounding arguments about the destruction of the family, tradition, and religion - i know these arguments aren’t worth listening to because they come from a place of prejudice.  “The family” in America has been “in danger” according to who you talk to, because of the breakdown of neighborliness, divorce, multi-culturism, bad schools (just about every ill in America gets blamed on the schools at some point), over population, etc.  The truth is that marriage equality would bolster our families - the truth is that people have been adopting children from the beginning of time - the truth is that the world was first populated by bisexuals - the truth is we don’t need heterosexuals to survive - the truth is the world is overpopulated - the truth is that there have hundreds, maybe thousands, of human cultures that had no form of monogamous, heterosexual marriage whatsoever, and these were the first cultures in existence - the truth is that, to some degree, all adults raise all the kids - the truth is that human society isn’t just one way and never has been - the truth is that there are many religions in this world and yours doesn’t get to take precedence in America coz that’s what the Founding Families wanted, and if you don’t believe that, google “deist” - and if you can look at the state of humanity now and say cultures that preach certain religious and social practices are “better” than others because they’ve conquered and imposed their culture on the rest of the world, then here’s nothing i can say to you.

For instance, a friend of mine once made an argument that the genocide against the First Nations of America was necessary, because otherwise, when Hitler came to power, no one would’ve stopped him.  This argument is ridiculous, because if there had been no empirical colonialism, there would have been no Hitler.  Europe would’ve been a lot different without colonialism.  There would’ve been no World Wars; the first world war was essentially a fight over colonial empirical power, and the second was in good measure a result of the first.  People say that sort of nationalistic, empirical colonialism is inevitable, but that sort of thing didn’t happen on all continents, it didn’t happen in the Americas and Africa, so it isn’t necessarily inevitable.  Once a person said to me that humans are born prejudiced - but the truth is that those societies we consider to be the most “primitive,” the closest to our origins and the furthest from so called “civilization” are the very societies with the least prejudice - the M’Buti in Africa, or the First Nations in parts of California for instance.  Prejudice is not a part of us, in the same way our emotions are a part of us.     

People will sometimes respond to child abuse with - “oh, everybody’s been abused” - and my response is, I know, look at humanity, with it’s torture, rape, injustice, biased criminal-justice systems, broken education systems, racism, sexism, constant wars, and it’s easy to see, yes, nearly every child’s been abused.  Which is why child abuse needs to stop so things will get better.  Things got better in the world after people stopped constantly beating their kids.  When education systems stopped using the lash is when we started seeing true justice in our society begin (we’re not there yet) - Civil Rights, Feminism, Sex Positive culture, Gay and Trans liberation.  

When i encounter girls who say women stopped needing feminism after they got the vote, i try to imagine them in the world I grew up in.  A world where women couldn’t get credit cards, rent cars or motel rooms, nor buy insurance of any kind - you needed a husband to get those things, because only men were considered good financial risks.  Girls weren’t supposed to leave the house unescorted, it wasn’t even proper for adult, married women to be seen in certain places unescorted, like Nite Clubs, bars, or dinner restaurants.  And if you think that was hard on strait women - think of how hard it was on lesbians - and, oh yes, my dear, there were lesbians back then - who do you think had the most investment in creating both the First and Second waves of feminism other than the most disenfranchised people in our system?  Teachers in pioneer America were expected to remain unmarried, so who do you think would be most attracted to that job?  Lesbians during the Industrial Revolution pretty much built the social welfare system in our country, because unmarried women were amongst the poorest people in our society.   

A friend of mine’s mother was a lawyer, she got divorced in the 60’s, and lost her car insurance - because she was an unmarried woman, and even tho she was a lawyer and earned good money, those were just the rules.  So, what would those girls think, who hold up those signs on facebook that say “we stopped needing feminism after we got the vote,” if every time they left the house they had to be in the company of some male?  If they couldn’t move away from their parents until they were married without facing social derision, poverty and hardship?  If the only professional jobs they could hope to have were teacher or nurse, unless they were not only exceptionally talented, but exceptionally hard-nosed and stubborn, like my friend’s mother.  And how would they like it if they couldn’t get credit cards until they were married?   

So, arguments that come from prejudice - especially from people who are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome - these are arguments i feel i no longer need to open my mind too, they are predatory.  

Minds need to open in order to get nutrition, to breath and drink, to get sunlight and life.  Minds need to close to keep out predators, and poison.  There is no greater predatory thought, no greater poison to humanity, than prejudice - prejudice will eat a mind, and make it it’s own, and even turn a mind against it’s Self.  Star minds are those without prejudice, star minds are those that believe in equality in such a fundamental way that they can't even see anything else - and there may only be six star minds in this world, but I hope there’re more.

Other pieces in this series
The Mind Shatters Slowly....              Shell Supernova                     Shells Remembering Water
                               

More manipulated seashell art: