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Show our ken is no good. j. The best cure for al prejudice : is knowledge for the cause of ; all prejudice is ignorance. We j : wouldn't ever inUnlionally be : . cruel even to ideas. So let's get wise to ourselves! i I Cruelty to Ideas j jl5y Ruth Taylor Have you ever been against an j idea just because you didn't like the person who promulgated it? That is cruelty to ideas and I reckon there have been times when you've been as guilty of it as I have. But remember, as Don Marquis used to say, an idea isn't responsible respon-sible for the people who believe in it. Did you ever try watching your own prejudices for one day': I did once. I kept a Hst of every instinctive bristling up, and it was pretty illuminating. When I analyzed my list, my opinion of myself reached a new low! Here are some of the things I found out: Prejudice against ideas is too often prejudice against the people who sponsor them. An idea may be so good that even a tad man will accept it to say nothing of the people who just want to climb on the bandwagon. Make up your mind for yourself study i the situation, and draw your own conclusions. What's the use of being an adult if you can't make your own decisions. Prejudice against individuals is I too often a mirror reflection you see m them some mannerism, manner-ism, some shading of 'expression, some tone of voice, some charac -teristic of someone whom perhaps you have just cause to dislike and you group the two together. You generalize when really your likes and dislikes should be based only on the individual. Prejudice .against groups is too often either a hangover or a misconception. Either it is based on a careless statement overheard in childhood and accepted as a fact, or a stereotype acquired in some thoughtless way. Or it may be an alibi often unrealized by the holder against some one's else ability. It is much easier to say it is a group against you than to .admit personal shortcomings. The first defense of the incompetent incom-petent is to incriminate. Prejudice against the untried and the different is too often a defense mechanism. We fear t? unknown. We dislike it because we don't want to admit our own ignorarice. ' We don't like to feel inferior to ourselves so we just say that what hasn't come within |