September 30, 2010
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The “Others”
Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers, jumped off the George Washington Bridge to his death after a clandestine video of Clementi having sex with a male acquaintance in his dorm room was posted online by his roommate. Sexual orientation is just one way that society sets people apart as “other” and demonizes them. I’m reminded of the scene from an old Frankenstein movie where a village mob sets out to exact revenge on the classical paradigm of otherness, Frankenstein. We find so many ways to designate “others”, people we deem unworthy of our respect or consideration. Religious, political, or racial views, right to life issues, gender and sexual orientation, age, wealth and poverty are all ways our propensity toward otherness prevents civilization from living up to being “created in the image and likeness of God.” Why is it human nature is compelled to demonize someone who may be different from them?
Comments (1)
“Why is it human nature is compelled to demonize someone who may be different from them?” By doing this they can find others that are like them and segregate in this way forming groups. People like to belong. So they set (and reset) rules to create groups. For whatever reason it just never works to have one gigantic group of everyone getting along.