Generalizing is Easy
| Published 11/03/04

Graphic by: Tim Tuley

Hello my friends! I know it's been awhile since I spat at ya.  One week to be exact, but Steve is back in the house like a cat chasing a mouse that happened to run into the house of the person that owned the cat, you know what I'm saying?  Not only am I back, but I'm also back with a new article to challenge, stimulate, and enthrall your head, brain, and mind.

If you are at all familiar with my written work, then you may know that a lot of what I discuss is stuff that I see, hear, and experience while situated right here in Radford VA.  Things that make me laugh, wonder, and stimulate me to get on this computer and lay down an article.

My most recent stimulus came at the beginning of this past weekend.  There were two girls at my house visiting one of my roommates and some of their other friends.  While talking to them for a little bit, I found that they came all the way from Florida and are students of Florida State University, or FSU for short.  Immediately, after hearing this, I thought of a good friend of mine who lives in Gainesville, Florida.  Gainesville, if you are not aware, is the town where the University of Florida is located, or Florida State University's traditional rival. With all of this in mind, I said,

"Wow, you guys go to Florida State, that's awesome! Actually, a friend of mine lives in Gainesville where the University of Florida is."

I suppose I figured that they'd say something like, "wow, that's really cool" or perhaps inquire as to how he happened to be there or something along those lines.  My instincts turned out to be wrong. Almost immediately one of them replied with,

"Oh, our rivals. They all suck."

Now wait just a second.  They all suck?  Surely you don't mean the whole of the University of Florida? How can an entire college of students suck?

"Well, they somehow pulled it off" one of them replied after I voiced my opinion.

Sure they may be your rivals and perhaps in the midst of a football game you may feel that you DO hate all of them, but how is it that you can automatically generalize so easily?  Of course at the same time I don't totally blame these girls.  It seems that for the most part people will generalize a whole school or region for no other reason then simply because they are expected to.  When people generalize something like a school it's really not a big deal, because truly it is fairly harmless.  I'm sure that these girls don't actually hate everyone from the University of Florida and if they were to meet someone from there they would most likely not have contempt and hate for them.

Excessive pride is also a problem with this.  Certainly you should be proud of your school, where you are from, who you are, etc.  However, just because you are it doesn't give you the right to dislike others. How can you dislike someone you don't know?

I may be getting a bit too emotional about this. I apologize, but I feel that this is very easily related to bigger problems such as wars, disputes, etc. So here I am writing this thinking that maybe someone will read it and think about it.  The funniest thing is that all of this has been said so many times before by some of the most intelligent people, and yet we still have these problems.  Maybe it is just human nature to want to have lots of pride and live up to expectations.  But then again, maybe I'm just some kid (or "young man") with a word processor and a medium that will publish this stuff.