Learning not to misuse groups, categories and labels

I've been thinking about how to explain what I'm practicing and promoting in relation to dividing people into groups and categories, and the labeling associated with that. What I'm practicing and promoting is far from clear to me, and it looks to me now like it might take a lot more time, and a lot more practice, for me to find ways to explain it that will make sense to anyone but me.

For now I'll just put down some random thoughts as they come to me.

1. I think of people as being randomly scattered across a continuum of variations in personality and behavior, rather than being neatly divided into separate groups and categories, and I'm trying to learn to always keep that in mind in discussions of social issues.

2. I don't think any group or category label attached to a person, by herself or by others, tells me anything whatsoever about her personality, character, ideology, interests, motives, purposes or capacities, and I'm trying to learn to always remember that. I also want to learn not to use any group or category labels in my conversations to try to convey any of my ideas or impressions about anyone's personality, character, ideology, interests, motives, purposes or capacities.

3. I'm trying to learn to strictly avoid associating any kind of personality, character, ideology, interests, motives, purposes or capacities, with any group or category of people, even implicitly, in my conversations.

4. I'm trying to learn to never depreciate anyone, and to free myself from all ill will.

5. I'm practicing fellowship and collaboration with some of the people whose ideologies are most opposed to mine, in my view or theirs.

Two social issues that concern me most of all now are the ravaging that I see intertwined with global monopoly games; and animosities and hostilities between Christians and Muslims, which I see as part of the desperate dying convulsions of prejudices used to rally support for the ravaging, and threatening to blow up the world. Part of what I see facilitating all that, is associating personality and character defects with groups and categories of people.

What motivates me in these efforts is not any hope of ever seeing any results from them, in anyone else's behavior. This is just part of what I'm doing to try to help improve the world, even if I never get to see any improvements in other people's behavior that might result from it.

I want to say that I see some deeper and more urgent problems in the growing and spreading alarm and anger that are fueling the animosities and hostilities, and in the moral and spiritual vacuum in which any excuse will do, for people to indulge their most treacherous, cruel and violent impulses, but I won't go into details about that now.

Looking at the man in the mirror

In my manifesto, I wrote that before I would criticize anyone else's behavior, I would want to criticize my own first.

I wanted to say something about some unhealthy-looking behavior I saw around me, so I decided to look for that behavior in myself first.

Here's what I saw:
- Jumping to conclusions about someone's personality and character from only a few observations of what they say and do, without any investigation.
- Anger and alarm continually erupting at the slightest provocation.
- Fear of letting people see the loving, affectionate, sensitive, sentimental, intuitive parts of my personality, and possibly being depreciated and intimidated, keeping me from talking about some of my thoughts and feelings in public.
- Continually being tempted to promote my ideas and interests in ways that depreciate and intimidate others.

There might be some clues for me in all that, about why my progress in learning kindness and humility has been so slow.

"My imprisonment doeth Me no harm, neither the tribulations I suffer, nor the things that have befallen Me at the hands of My oppressors. That which harmeth Me is the conduct of those who, though they bear My name, yet commit that which maketh My heart and My pen to lament."[1]

"All these things bring joy to the heart, and yet 'Abdu'l-Bahá is sunk deep in an ocean of grief, and pain and anguish have so affected my limbs and members that utter weakness hath overtaken my whole body. ... there hath arisen a dust cloud of ill will amongst the believers themselves. ... this doth lay upon the heart of 'Abdu'l-Bahá a heavy burden of grief, of inconceivable grief. For no tempest more perilous than this could ever assail the Cause of God, nor could anything else so diminish the influence of His Word."[2]

"Does not 'Abdu'l-Bahá wish us, as He looks down upon us with loving expectation from His glorious Station, to obliterate as much as possible all traces of censure, of conflicting discussions, of cooling remarks, of petty unnecessary observations that impede the onward march of the Cause, that damp the zeal of the firm believer and detract from the sublimity of the Bahá'í Cause in the eyes of the inquirer?"[3]

"With every day that passes, danger grows that the rising fires of religious prejudice will ignite a worldwide conflagration the consequences of which are unthinkable."[4]

"... the disease of sectarian hatreds, if not decisively checked, threatens harrowing consequences that will leave few areas of the world unaffected."[5]

For twenty years, from the earliest days of the Internet, the most popular Baha'i Internet forums have been divided into opposing ideological sanctuaries, with Baha'is in every forum continually maligning Baha'is with views opposed to theirs, often using Baha'i writings, and the words of Baha'i institutions and Baha'i celebrities, as excuses and instruments for their maligning. I've seen that same maligning in some of the most popular Baha'i Blogs and Web pages, and in the writings of Baha'i scholars; and I've seen the same division into opposing camps in Baha'i facebook groups.

I see that maligning as a symptom of divisions that have always existed within the Baha'i community, all over the world and at every level, and at the same time I see it threatening to deepen and widen those divisions. I also see it breaking hearts, staining the reputation of the Faith and repelling people away from it, and undermining the zeal and even the faith of some of its members.

I see a need for more individual initiatives to help calm that tempest. I'll be posting some relevant guidance I've found for those initiatives, and some ideas for strategies and lines of action. I would welcome any ideas from anyone, regardless of your ideology!

References:
[1] (Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 23)
[2] (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 229)
[3] (Shoghi Effendi, 5 March 1922, to the Baha'is of the British Isles)
[4] (The Universal House of Justice, 2002 April, to the World's Religious Leaders)
[5] (The Universal House of Justice, Naw-Rúz, 2005, One Common Faith)