What can you replay to this discussion down below? We view people of other cultures as deaf-mutes, and them us. Everyone has their own set of symbols in their life, really every individual has their own set of symbols. No single person is the same and when we meet strangers we know nothing of them. They are mute, deaf to our symbols, as we are to theirs. We see them as foreigners to our minds as they carry a set of symbols different from ours. The thing is these symbols are knowledge, they are human behavior, “Human behavior is symbolic behavior; symbolic behavior is human behavior” (Benokraitis and Macionis 2009:33). Symbols expand knowledge, and human behavior expands knowledge. They create meaning. The more people a person meets the more symbols and human behavior they gain as each person carries their own. People themselves are symbols, we symbolize other people as family, friends, best friends, strangers, peers, and acquaintances, and we even symbolize ourselves. I believe the tendency to view others as less than ourselves is our lack of empathy for others’ symbols because they differ from our own. Accepting different symbolic meanings for one thing can help us overcome this tendency. Taking in that things have multiple symbols and not only ours matters or is correct. Also acknowledging that as we meet others we grow ourselves, every second we gain a new symbol in our lives and it’s because of the people around us, and the knowledge we gain from them. The word symbol also translates into the word character. We give things in our lives character, and being open to others’ character allows us to build on our own, as we are characters ourselves.
What can you replay to this discussion down below?
We view people of other cultures as deaf-mutes, and them us. Everyone has their own set of symbols in their life, really every individual has their own set of symbols. No single person is the same and when we meet strangers we know nothing of them. They are mute, deaf to our symbols, as we are to theirs. We see them as foreigners to our minds as they carry a set of symbols different from ours. The thing is these symbols are knowledge, they are human behavior, “Human behavior is symbolic behavior; symbolic behavior is human behavior” (Benokraitis and Macionis 2009:33). Symbols expand knowledge, and human behavior expands knowledge. They create meaning. The more people a person meets the more symbols and human behavior they gain as each person carries their own. People themselves are symbols, we symbolize other people as family, friends, best friends, strangers, peers, and acquaintances, and we even symbolize ourselves.
I believe the tendency to view others as less than ourselves is our lack of empathy for others’ symbols because they differ from our own. Accepting different symbolic meanings for one thing can help us overcome this tendency. Taking in that things have multiple symbols and not only ours matters or is correct. Also acknowledging that as we meet others we grow ourselves, every second we gain a new symbol in our lives and it’s because of the people around us, and the knowledge we gain from them. The word symbol also translates into the word character. We give things in our lives character, and being open to others’ character allows us to build on our own, as we are characters ourselves.
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