I just got back from an evening with my friend Keith Powell. We don't catch up with each other as often as we should, so this was a monumentous occasion. Somehow we brought the conversation around to race. I can't remember the details at the moment, but I remember at the time that I was reminded of an old theory I had once formulated and discounted as one that, surely, someone else had expounded on.
I've always thought that society's major problems could all be traced to a "cleft point". Sculptors and diamond cutters know that every solid stone, if struck at exactly the right spot can break. Sometimes it breaks cleanly, sometimes it shatters. The key is hitting it in the right spot. These points are called cleft points.
It can be tricky to spot society's cleft points. I know I have at least five of them, there might be more, I don't know. 1) Gender 2) Race/ethnicity 3) Sexuality 4) Class 5) Religion These five things are things that divide us. It isn't just amatter of ignoring them. It is a matter of seeing them, acknowledging them, accepting them, and living with them. those steps are what heal us...nothing else can.
I said it was tricky. Keith tried to put another on the table; Education. I discounted this. Not because it isn't a problem in it's own right, but because largely it is a factor of the other five. He alternately stated intelligence as one. I had three responses a) There is very little social strife over smart vs. dumb whereas there is a lot across the five borders I mentioned earlier. and b) He might be right, I had to think about it, and c) If you count that as a cleft point, likewise you need to count physical stature. Laugh all you want, but it is called a Napolean complex for a reason, and it might be true, I need to think.
This might be the subject of a future essay, but I really want people's input. Am I crazy or
can the majority of differences be traced back to these major five? Let me know what you think?
Technorati tags: cleft point, race, gender, class, religion, sexuality
What you're talking about are
By Koenig (not verified)What you're talking about are the things that define a tribe in traditional human organization. Education as a structured matter is newer (only really been around for a few hundred years), but some say that education in many ways rolls into Class. The inflection point isn't often smart vs. dumb or wealthy vs. non-wealthy but rather those with prospects vs. those without. "Education" is often more of a social-status certificate than a measure of intellectual prowess.
On the other hand, in spite of the apparent uselessness of my education, I get flack from some kids when I go home to Eugene for being a "college boy."
You might also want to think about language and culture. While culture historically hinges on issues like race, sexuality and religion, this is becoming less and less the case. The tribes of the 21st century are more diverse (even the anti-diversity tribes) than ever before in human history. That's a kind of progress, maybe.