Prejudice

When The Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegard was a boy, a circus visited the village where he lived. Because there was no room for the big top tent within the village itself, the circus set up several kilometres beyond the village in a green field.

Preparations were made for the opening, which in the early 1800’s was a big deal for the people of a rural village.

But on opening night, a tragedy struck. Two hours before the curtains rose, someone knocked over a bucket of hot coals and the big top itself caught on fire. The circus people gathered and watched helplessly as their beloved tent was engulfed in flames and realised that soon the fire would spread to other tents nearby.

Most of the performers were only half dressed, but the clown had readied himself before the others and was fully dressed in his costume, so it was decided that he should run into the town to get some help.

He set off at a dead run and on the outskirts of the village, he encountered a group of people. Slightly puffed from the run, he franticly tried to explain what was happening as he gesticulated wildly to draw their attention to the crisis.

Observing his dress and actions, the villagers assumed this was a promotional gesture for the evening’s performance. Quite a crowd gathered to applaud and laugh at the clown’s strange behaviour. The clown, realising that people were completely misunderstanding his intentions, eventually fell quiet. And it was only then that the villagers noticed a column of smoke rising from the nearby field.

The word prejudice means to pre-judge. It means, like the crowd with the clown, to make a judgement of someone based on their outward appearance, their manner of speech or your assumptions about them rather than on accurate and first-hand knowledge of the person and their circumstances. How different could the world be if we resisted our natural inclinations toward prejudice? We do it so easily. Keep an eye out for where it may be lurking in your thinking today!