If there is
anything in this life I really don’t care about much will be labels and ideologies;
I have extreme allergic reaction toward anything comes with a certain hypothesis
that limit human thinking to what is stated between parenthesis. Maybe it is a psychological
complex from my side, or it might be just natural behavior for the type mindset
I have; I just HATE anything put
different people in one mold and try to fit them there with all their differences
and uniqueness and ask them to believe that about themselves and apply the self-fulfilling
prophecy whether they wanted that or not.
I don’t target here only negative labels; for me all labels are negative and they are meant to place
huge mental and psychological locks on our freedom in a very smart intellectual
way and diminish the individual in all of us with all our uniqueness, special
traits and characteristics. It targets the initial belonging need in all human
beings and asks them to stick to where they mostly fit; taking away or ignoring
the other parts where they are completely different and they don’t fit at all.
Whether that label was positive or negative it gives us an illusion of who we are, creating delusional societies where people either think they are worse than
they really are or better than they really are, ignoring the fact that humans
are unlike coins have more than two sides.
Labeling theory explains
the phenomena as “the deviance according to which being labeled as a
"deviant" leads a person to engage in deviant behavior.” This was
originated in Howard Becker’s work in the 1960s; where he explained why
people’s behavior clashes with social norms. But since the 1960s we have had
more light on how social norms are changeable and we have a better
understanding of human nature and I would like to believe that we all can agree
partially or completely that no matter how similar we can appear, we are so
different and unique which make it impossible for lots of us to fit in just one
category.
A lot will
debate the labeling is not a big of a deal, and if you don’t fit then simply
reject them all. But that ignores the consequences in a larger scale; labels
usually, create stereotypes and stereotypes create a self-fulfilling prophecy that affects people and coin them with the same characteristics and blind them from the other sides they might have in them. On the other hand,
labels contribute massively in the creation of ideologies, theories and
thinking schools which are the great intellectual fundament for our human
civilization but when humans get attached to them tightly it creates the worse
form of labeling where people only stick to people who only share the same
thoughts and ideas that eventually creates extremism which I think is not only
associated with religions and politics but everything; nationalism, racism, sexism
…etc. which I believe is totally unhealthy for individual intellectual growth
and for social tolerance and acceptance.
Social research
indicated that those who have negative labels most likely have lower self-esteem,
are more likely to reject themselves, and may act more deviant as a result of
the label. From the other side, people who accept the labeling of others—whether
it’s correct or incorrect—have a difficult time changing their opinions of the
labeled person, even in light of evidence to the contrary. That in the end, the result creates distorted society are unable to think freely for itself or
be open-minded enough to accept the fact that variables in our life are subject to constant
change and we should be accepting of it no matter if we understood that
difference and change or not.
I will not ask
anyone to imagine a world where labels never exist because it simply naïve,
labels will always exist because it limits our freedom as individual and
collective groups which OBVIOUSLY serve certain people who will always find a way
to benefit from that. just what if we all have the courage to be ourselves to challenge the labels and ideologies; have our own thoughts and ideas, be open
for new knowledge and don’t stick to anything that will take away the smallest
part of our character. Live unapologetically
as our own being and exercise the total freedom of thoughts which is one of
the things in this life no one can take away from us, be your own thinker and
have the capacity to tolerate others thoughts and difference and change the
world from within … you the smallest piece of the puzzle and the most important
one!
