It turns out that rankism is the source of most man-made suffering. So, if we could get rid of it, we would be a lot happier. Let me explain.
Before you conclude that rankism is human nature -- that we're like the apes, and they do it, so we have no choice -- and dismiss the possibility of overcoming it, consider this list of specific kinds of "put downs" that, not long ago, were deemed cool, but have become a sure way to embarrass yourself:
1.Racism -- whites putting and keeping non-whites down
2 Sexism -- males limiting and disadvantaging females
3 Ageism -- patronizing the young, condescending to the elderly
4 Anti-Semitism -- discriminating against Jews
5 Classism -- putting down people on the basis of differences in class (more prevalent in former aristocracies like Britain than in America, but also known here)
6 Homophobia -- heterosexuals demeaning gays and lesbians
7 Ableism -- humiliating people with disabilities
8 Colonialism -- subordinating and exploiting another society or nation
9 Workplace and schoolyard bullying; sexual harassment, child abuse, and domestic violence; corporate, bureaucratic, and political corruption
10.
The list goes on. Once you have a word for it, you see rankism everywhere.
Although all of these familiar isms persist, none of them has the force it did fifty years ago. Most of them are now regarded as distinctly uncool, even grounds for dismissal. The burden of proof, which formerly fell on nobodies, now falls on Somebodies.
That's historical change, and that's why it is not utopian to think that we might be able to give up putting people down, not just people bearing a targeted trait (such as color, gender, age, class, religion, sexual orientation, disability), but give up putting people down period. For any reason. Period. .... Read more here ... And here
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