How your self-worth is defined for you (and what to do about it)
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007I ran across an incredible documentary today, that is shocking me to my core. Not because the ideas are new– it’s because it shows how quickly we human beings can be programmed to be “winners” or “losers” in life, and how that programming completely affects our happiness, success, self-awareness and well-being for the rest of our lives. Unless, of course, we learn to comprehend and undo that programming that came from external sources.
These are clips from a Frontline special called “A Class Divided,” and it is a must see if you wish to understand how quick, pervasive and subtle the stigmatization of people is. It completely explains why our social structure is the way it is today.
In 1968, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white town in Iowa, divided her 3rd grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups to give them a lesson in discrimination. What occurred was something that nobody would probably predict.
It showed how quickly the “superior” students took advantage of their privileged positions, and how quickly the “inferior” students began to feel badly about themselves. These social rankings also quickly had effects on the students’ ability to perform in class. The “superior” students became “smarter.”
What is more interesting, is that when the tables were turned (i.e., the “superior” class became “inferior” and visa versa), the next day, the performance results changed immediately. The “smart” kids became slower, and the “slow” kids became smarter– all because their social positions had changed in the classroom.
And this was just the effect of one day of conditioning. What do you think the effects of years, decades, and centuries of cultural conditioning can do to people?
It is important to understand that all of us are conditioned by our environment. Some are conditioned to be “superior,” some to be “inferior.” The most important thing is to learn to detect how we have been conditioned in order to wake up and steer our lives in the direction of our own choosing.
Please watch these amazing clips, and I’d love to hear your opinions in the comments below.
Part I:
Part II:
Part III:
