"Prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of." Discuss

According to the dictionary, the definition of prejudice is ' an unfavourable opinion or feeling formed before hand or without knowledge, thought or reason. Usually of a hostile nature, regarding a racious religious or national group.' We all have to admit that to some extent, everyone judges another based on appearance, race or religion, whether we know the person or not. We conciously or unconciously make comments about a person just based on the way they look. This form or thinking or behaviour is believed to have been instilled in us since young, be it through media, society or our upringing. We do not give a person the chance to reveal his or her true character before we start judging them. This is all such ignorant behaviour, that sadly, all of us practice. This is prejudice for you.

Then the question comes to mind, 'Is there a way to eradicate such thinking?' or 'Have people thought of ways to cure this so called 'disease' ?'. Apparantly some societies have come up with laws to ensure that people 'treat' each other with respect. The laws give people the right to be the way they are, without people criticising them. However, in my opinion, whether societies come up with these laws or not, prejudice will still be prevalent. No one can stop people from thinking what they want to. They might not voice out their opinions but thoughts and judgments are still being formed in their heads. The only way to stop people from being prejudice, is if they learn to accept others for who they are and embrace others for their individuality instead of criticizing them and categorizing them.

It is believed that this 'disease' is derived from fear. Fear of foreign people and intolerance of people from different cultures, who carry different beliefs. This condition is called Xenophobia, which is an intense fear or dislike of foreign people. This condition can only be dealt with on a deeply spiritual level.

In other words, prejudice is a disease which cannot be cured as a whole. It depends on an individual, as to whether they want to change their midsets. Any law created can only stop the judgements from being voiced, but they cannot stop judgements from being formed.


REFERENCE: http://allaboutpopularissues.org/racial.prejudice

: http://unerstandingprejudice.org

"You tube has no ethics. It has been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money." Do you agree?

YouTube has become a popular sharing ground of videos. It is at this site that people of different age groups are able to view, comment and rate an unlimited amount of videos. YouTube was bought over by Google in the year 2006, and has since become increasingly popular among people. YouTube was first created, not on the basis of making a lot of money, but as a form of enterprise. Only when it was bought over by Google, did it become increasingly popular among people. In my view, YouTube was created for people to share entertaining videos, such as music videos, personally created videos, and short movie clips with the public, however, this is not its sole purpose. YouTube is also used as a medium for displaying various videos for purposes, other than entertainment.

Recently, BBC agreed to share its videos with YouTube. It plans to showcase wildlife programmes, share BBC news from the UK and various video trailers. The purpose of this, is to generate more awareness of BBC and to make money. However, it is not solely for entertainment purposes. Apart from sharing world news, YouTube was used as a means for political campaigning. Political candidates posted videos of their candidacy, to promote themselves in the US Presidential Elections. This is becoming a popular trend among other contries as well, as they probably find YouTube an ideal medium for their campaining process. Furthermore, videos of health advice can be found on YouTube. It provides information on how to tackle medical problems faced by various people. Hence, YouTube is seen as an educatinal site.

Apart from entertainment, campaigning and for educatinal purposes, YouTube connects people of different age groups, racial groups and different nationalities. People are able to share their personal views on videos, news and other events that affect them personally, for example, the Virginia Tech shootings. This way, people around the globe become more connected. In conclusion, YouTube was not created solely for entertainment and money. Other factors contribute to the creation of this site which has become highly popular among people.



Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#Use_of_acoustic_fingerprints
: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/02/nbbc102.xml