Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> Mike Lorrey writes
>
> > I find that people will prefer to be treated different if that different
> > treatment is an improvement over how everybody else is treated. Seniors
> > will emphasize how old they are if there is a discount offered, while at
> > any other time they don't want to talk about how old they are. Women
> > don't want their sex or appearance to be a factor unless they happen to
> > know that it will give them an edge (government set-aside contracts, for
> > instance, or emphasizing one's cleavage to a male boss). Even elites are
> > not above this. A certain rock n' roll star I know always tells people
> > he does business with that 'he just wants to be treated like a regular
> > guy', except of course on those few occasions when he is trying to work
> > a deal to his advantage, he whips out the old star treatment for whoever
> > it is.
>
> Yes, but sometimes people will identify with a group for reasons
> having nothing to do with personal advantage. Sometimes people
> feel very much a need to be part of something larger and stronger
> than themselves, and having a "people" will do. This is another
> way of describing what I have against diversity, namely, it
> encourages this identification with the group.
Oh, quite so. Individuals who feel a need to be righteous and indignant
will generally find a group to identify with. Me, I'm equally indignant
about everything, but especially other people's blind spots.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:21 MDT