Uniqueness ~ ~ Autumn-Blog-Cleaning

I've begun sorting throught my unpublished blog posts. Some will be posted as is, some will be finished and published, most will be deleted. As I have more that 100 drafts expect lots of crazy, dizzy, angry, happy and hopefully funny posts to pop up over the coming weeks.

My first Autumn Blog Cleaning post

If you're a Jew and I do not like you, I might not be an anti-Semitic nincompoop. If you're a woman and I do not like you, I'm probably not sexist. Because maybe it's not your sex or religion what's putting me off.

Maybe what I do not like about you is your political point of view, maybe your ideas about people on the dole, maybe your aggressive veganism, your view on public transportation, covid19, or a zillion other matters?

I never understood the former way of thinking. If it really is only this one thing that's defining you and who you are, I truly feel sorry for you, because we all are so much more ...

Some of our characteristics are immutable, genetic. For example: eye colour, height, skin pigmentation (the colour may change when exposed to the Sun), the ability to roll your tongue, biological gender, the ability to taste phenylthiocarbamide (FTC), etc. ect.

Others are changeable: the ability to speak Esperanto, a fondness for Brussels sprouts, wanting to have sex with men, being able to stand on one's head, knowing how to swim, having a certain job and many others.

The failure of  most ideologies is that they put a magnifying glass on one of these characteristics - be it genetic or changeable - and say this it is what defines me, what I am. But I do NOT want to be defined by this one facet of me. It is not the only one that makes me who I am.

Once, many years ago I was at a "museum" where we were asked to answer 8 simple questions, each asked by a computer, tied to a worktable, where aids to answer the questions were given. I only remember some of the questions. These were:

Are the hairs on your head straight or curly?

Are your fingerprints whorls or waves? (A magnifying glass and example of fingerprint types provided).

What is your eye colour? (A mirror and - I think - 6 different eyes given).

Can you smell this? (Two test tubes, one neutral, one stinky -  to me, but obviously not to everyone)

Are you a man or a woman (Simpler times then, today that might have to be: Are you endowed with 2 X-chromosomes? to be equally simple and unambiguous).

Each question was asked by a computer, and as you put in your answer - the man/woman one was the first - it told you: "You are visitor number 845,372 since we opened this exhibition, and 410,785 were like you". Every time I typed in my answers at one of the stations, the second number plummeted. Until at the last station I was told: "You are visitor number 845,372 since we opened this exhibition, and 0 were like you - you are unique!" And this was with only 8 simple questions.

How come some people think that gender, or religion, or skin colour, or intelligence, or eating preferences, or whatever, is the only determining factor?