Sep 10 2012: I agree to that, and I would add that also for those of us for whom it is unavoidable now, it will not necessarily be always unavoidable. Life makes sure that we all become more conscious, at first usually against our will.
Also, I would like to add that I do not believe that making comparisons is always wrong. For example, if I apply for any job, I expect and agree to be compared to others. Whether or not I am chosen does not make me more or less human than another. Bad and good humans, ethnocentric ones or more universal ones, cruel or kind, ugly or pretty, we are all equally human, and all of our judgments of each other are partial and temporary...
I get the feeling I am going in a circle. My conclusion now is that we are all ethnocentric, inevitably, and that being conscious of this is a key to becoming free of it.... with this thought I sign off and go back to my life.
Sep 7 2012: I believe that you are pointing at an area we all need to look at here, when you say that ethnocentrism, which i understand as a collective form of egoism, has to do with our comparing each other and making judgments about each other, which is unfair. I do not believe that our habit of comparing is inevitable or unavoidable. I believe we do well to be conscious of it, and to recognize when we make comparisons and to feel what that does to us.
I feel that just the thought that it could be possible to engage with one another and one anothers cultures without the need to be more right or less, or more developed or less or more or less anything, is freeing.
Sep 6 2012: With the definition you give, it seems to me that ethnocentrism will continue to be inevitable as long as we are not able to recognize that we do not see others as they are, but rather as we ourselves are. Maybe when we recognize this, that we cannot really see another, whether individual or group, in wholeness, but that we only see what we are able to see in our own limitedness... knowing that the appearance is not the truth, then we can begin to relate more respectfully.
Is not each one of us and each of our groups just one possible of so many realities? Some of these realities are truer than others, and I believe we are all moving in the direction of more truth, even if indirectly.
There are some words of Franz Kafka which I would like to share. I am thankful for these words, because I know they can help me to stand with my own truth, which I often wish were other than it is, and which I know will be other than it is.
“We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.”
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A comment on Conversation: Is it possible for an individual to be without ethnocentrism?
Also, I would like to add that I do not believe that making comparisons is always wrong. For example, if I apply for any job, I expect and agree to be compared to others. Whether or not I am chosen does not make me more or less human than another. Bad and good humans, ethnocentric ones or more universal ones, cruel or kind, ugly or pretty, we are all equally human, and all of our judgments of each other are partial and temporary...
I get the feeling I am going in a circle. My conclusion now is that we are all ethnocentric, inevitably, and that being conscious of this is a key to becoming free of it.... with this thought I sign off and go back to my life.
A reply on Conversation: Is it possible for an individual to be without ethnocentrism?
I feel that just the thought that it could be possible to engage with one another and one anothers cultures without the need to be more right or less, or more developed or less or more or less anything, is freeing.
A comment on Conversation: Is it possible for an individual to be without ethnocentrism?
Is not each one of us and each of our groups just one possible of so many realities? Some of these realities are truer than others, and I believe we are all moving in the direction of more truth, even if indirectly.
There are some words of Franz Kafka which I would like to share. I am thankful for these words, because I know they can help me to stand with my own truth, which I often wish were other than it is, and which I know will be other than it is.
“We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.”