I'm not talking about the way people think. I'm talking about the way people feel, which is completely different. I know quite well that long hair guys should not be any different from anybody else, and I try damn hard to give them a fair shake before I judge them. But that's at a higher level of my mind. Deep down, in the dungeonous depths of my mind, evil lurks. The evil of prejudice.
I think that secretly, whether they admit it to themselves or not, most people are influenced by prejudice. There's not many people out there, I think, who treat all people the same. They may not allow it to surface very often, but it's always there. Why? Who knows. Cultural influences are always strong. How many Canadians out there think Americans are all loud arrogant and self centred? How many Americans think Canadians are as good as Americans? Why else? I think that humans and maybe all animals have a built in facility for pattern recognition. And if people can recognize patterns in other people, then voila! Prejudice is born.
So......prejudice is inevitable. I think. And is okay, as long as it is tempered with reasoning. If we just mindlessly act on your prejudice, this unacceptable. If we eliminate prejudice entirely, this is ideal. If we know we have certain tendencies to be prejudiced against certain groups, and we take steps to try and be as objective as possible when dealing with members of these groups, then that is not ideal, but I think acceptable -- after all, we're only human.