Generalisations and why they are wrong.

Who can you trust?

Early this week I discovered someone online, making wild and negative accusations about the SGI as an organisation, lumping us all in to one big negative category.

SGI is made up of millions of people worldwide, 12 million to be exact, we truly are a slice of society. Many cultures, races and ethnic backgrounds.

Making wild and negative generalisations about people based on ethnicity, or religion is lazy thinking, and often the sign of an inability to perceive complexity.

Generalisations can sometimes have some truth to them though, but are almost always superficial and don't take into account complex nature of causation. However, we sentient beings do make sense of the world largely through pattern recognition, so one often can't help but make generalisations.

Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons: is it possible that getting offended on the behalf of an organisation, or religion one identifies with, although natural, is ultimately just another division in society? Is it possible that my reaction itself is part of the problem?

“When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else [a Buddhist?], you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.” - Jiddu Krishnamurti

What are your thoughts?