Chauvinism II
Chauvinism consists of drawing an arbitrary boundary between "us" and "them" somewhere in Existence, and then add a value judgment to it, such as "good" and "bad", or "important" and "not important". We may for instance include "us" within our circle of concern, and not "them".
It can be between...
- Body and mind. I am this mind, and this body is "other" and maybe inferior. Or, I am this body, and the mind is just a byproduct of biological processes.
- Ethnic groups. Our ethnic group is important, and we can ignore the other(s).
- Culture. Our culture has the answers, and we can safely ignore the insights from other ethnic groups (in science, philosophy, psychology etc).
- Species. We have one set of guidelines for behavior towards humans, and another for all other species.
- Present and future generations. We take only the consequences for current generations into account, and leave out future generations in the equation.
- Mind and matter.
- Science and spirituality.