PREJUDICES

by David Nuttle

Humans achieve rapport or engage in any conflicts based on the matching or conflicting prejudices of each side. Typical issues are nationality, origin, economic status, condition, sex, age, ethnicity, race, disability, appearance, status, friends, social contacts, education, skills, and signs of wealth.

If individuals or groups experience extreme and opposing prejudices they may be in some type of prolonged conflicts, armed or not. Examples of problems this causes may be some of the following issues:

a) psychological harm.

b) Systemic inequalities.

c) Cycles of hostilities.

d) Reduced self-esteem.

e) Helplessness.

f) Social avoidance.

g) Intergroup frictions.

h) Discrimination.

i) Political underrepresentation.

j) Isolation.

k) Resource advantages/ disadvantages.

At times, prejudices of opposing parties will "collide," and neither side will compromise. The current example is the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Putin of Russia is determined to take land from Ukraine and/or totally defeat Ukraine while Ukraine will not give away land to achieve a peace that may not last. Russia is the aggressor, and the EU does not want Ukraine to make unjustified concessions to Russia and possibly encourage

Putin to attack the EU.

In many developing nations there is prejudice against one group or another and the group with lesser influence is socially, economically, and politically isolated. A few cases of serious economic isolation a group may be forced to use barter trade to acquire basic needs. There are times when prejudices create beliefs that cannot be proven true or false. One example is determination of the rightful religion owning "dome-of-the rock" in Isreal. At present, there is a Muslim masque at this location but throughout history other religions have had temples at this same location. The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is caused by dramatic prejudices over ownership of present Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.'

Special promotion of any group over others typically creates public friction. The current cases are LGBTQ/ Tans promotion, men in women's sports, infanticide and hate speech as a type of free speech. Such claims of special rights are causes of more prejudices. A false prejudice is used to motivate a group or population to take an action that is not justified by any valid or proven reason. One example is Putin's claim that neo-Nazis-controlled Ukraine

and were preparing to attack Russia (false). Another example is VPOTUS Dick Cheney's

creation of the false prejudice that Saddam Hussein, of Iraq, had many weapons-of-mass-destruction and was preparing to use them (false). He persuaded POTUS G. W. Bush to

order the U. S. military attack on Iraq.

It is human nature for all persons to have prejudices and varied highly innovative types of diplomacy are needed to find effective compromises so all peoples may soon learn to live together in peace and prosperity.