Nipple rings and multiculturalism

Tuesday, 6 February 2007
9.08 pm
Koningsstraat, Amsterdam

Inaya: I've been downloading American Idol and I find them being too harsh on some contestants. It's just too much for me to enjoy.
Thera: I can't watch American Idol. I think that they're being just too mean to the people they think can't sing.
Inaya: I know, especially with the close ups on their hair, thick glasses, or the way they dress to make something funny out of it.
Thera: It's almost just like bullying someone for being different.

Readers, meet my Canadian friend, Thera Martens, with her nipple rings and tattoos and amazing understanding of multiculturalism.

It makes me think about ideas vs. matter. How many times do you dismiss someone's ideas because they way the look or what they wear? Sure, it's our safety net to generalise from appearance because to some extent, what someone wears says a lot about who they are. But when you can disregard someone because they don't seem to be a person who could construct a decent idea, this says something about your pattern of thinking.

There is that of idealism and that of materalism. Idealism, in short, believes that the world is constituted by thoughts and experience. That we, as perceivers, make meaning of everything and things exists because we think. While materialism believes that things only exists because they have substance. I would say, based on these two opposing concepts, that this is the reason why some people, when stressed, could resort to buying clothes, jewelries or shoes while others resort to religion, culture or finding answers.

It's hard to pinpoint which is better because in terms of philosophy, or social science or cultural studies or whatever, everything is arguable. Somewhere in the back of my head lies the basic notion that overthinking is not worthwhile and let's just happily appreciate difference. It's when you impose what you think is right to others that social illnesses occure. Like, for example, how social activism argues that economic materialism, or what is more popularly known as consummerism, is the main cause of envy, frustration and war. It is when we flash our 'ideas of consumption' or 'consumption of ideas' to those who believe otherwise that, well, things crumble. Just imagine you being hungry and without money to feed your children while someone walks by with an expensive handbag and a thick wallet. What do you think would happen next?

I think it's every person's right to live as they believe. How we want to achieve happiness is our mandate, be it reading, shopping, praying or singing. But it is ignorance of other people's choice, the apathy, that complicates things. Just like how American Idol increases revenue by exposing several people's humiliation. Sure ratings prove that audience want to see other people's misery, but would you really want to be in that position of being bullied? Would you accept someone telling you that you're shallow because you only care about branded goods or that you're a freak because you listen to experimental music? Wouldn't the world be less of one problem if you would go the extra mile to close your eyes and really listen to the idea instead of who is saying it or what they look like? Wouldn't you want to be treated the same way?

This all came from just not being able to laugh at other people or calling them losers because they don't share the things you think are important. After all, as Albert Einstein so elloquently puts it, "Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." Our world is not the safe little tiny bubble we grew up in and once we see beyond what we are used to, we would realise how many insulting things we've said about other people and how conceited we are. If this doesn't shame us, I don't know what will.