Vital Problems of Life

Vital Problems of Life A Study for Advanced Senior Classes of the M. I. A., 1920-21

By Dr. George H. Brimhall

Lesson XVI.— The Pull of Prejudice I. Definitions. (1) Prejudice is the acceptance of inadequate or inaccurate information as a basis of judgment. It is the undeliberate making up of one's mind; it is the unreasoned element of conclusion. (2) The Pull of Prejudice is the influence the judgment has upon the mind in the curtailment of its freedom to accept and weigh evidence that might conflict with the preconceived judgment.

//. Some Things That the Pull of Prejudice Does. (1) The Pull of Prejudice shuts off the desire for wider experience. A lady visiting Salt Lake with her son, just graduated from high school, met the remark of the guide on the Temple block, to the effect that the youth was patriotic to California, with the retort, "Entirely too patriotic." Then the mother told the guide that she was very proud of her son's record in high school and for that reason had made up her mind to give him a trip to her old home, in the South. The boy came home with his diploma, and with great pride placed it in his mother's hand. The mother received it with delight, remarking to her son that because of his very excellent record, she had decided to give him a trip to the home of his grandparents. She expected an exclamation of joy to follow this announcement, but very much to her astonishment the boy hung his head, and went quietly out of the door. She knew something was wrong, but could not tell what. An hour later the lad returned and, placing his arms sympathetically about his mother's neck, said: "Mama, when California is the best place in the whole world what is the good of going anywhere else?" (2) The Pull of Prejudice closes the doors against fair and accurate observation. A prominent educator stood at the south gate of the Temple block observing the young people coming out, and was impressed with what to him was the fine physique, beaming coun-

316 IMPROVEMENT ERA tenances, and buoyancy of spirit in the children's and youths' faces. His remark was, "A high type of humanity." Some distance away, looking into the faces of the same throng, stood a person whose acquaintance with parents of the young people had been through anti-"Mormon" literature. She saw what she put into the group: low browedness and degeneracy. Her remark was, "A low lot." (3) Prejudice Pulls Away from Improvement. The man from Missouri can be shown, some from Prejudiceville can't be shown, and others won't be shown. How the door to open-mindedness is locked by prejudice is illustrated by the honest hard-headed Scotchman who said, "I am willing to be convinced, but I'd like to see the man who can convince me."

///. Some Ways in Which We Are Prejudiced. (1) We are prejudiced by insufficient information.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again." Women have been adjudged as inferior to man because they have smaller brains, but scientific investigation goes to show that the brains of women, in proportion to their weight, are as large as those of men. Educational records show that the average mark of the high school girl and college woman are as high as those of the opposite sex. (2) We are prejudiced by our whims. The acquaintance of a disagreeable character prejudices us against other persons of the same name as the objectionable character. It is sheer cruelty to handicap a boy with the name of Cain or Judas. We sometimes judge a person bad because we do not feel at ease in his presence. Apropos to this condition are the lines: "I do not like you, Dr. Fell. The reason why I cannot tell."

(3) We are prejudiced through a lack of proper evaluation of evidence. It has been said that sporadic or accidental occurrences are not worthy of consideration in estimating the real character of an individual or a group. Some outlawry in Nazareth did not justify the question, "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" A Fourth of July committee of finance, soliciting contributions, called on a man who had a general reputation for liberality, one who paid his tithing and fast donations cheerfully, and his taxes without grumbling. Believing that civic celebra-

VITAL PROBLEMS OF LIFE 317

tions should be paid for out of the city treasury, he gave nothing to the committee, and was listed as stingy. She did not go out to parties, At meeting she was not there; But let an epidemic come And she was everywhere. He made for his town a million, And a thousand for himself; Was branded as a profiteer And laid upon the shelf. (4) We are prejudiced through out credulity and superstition. There are men who poo poo systematic procedure in business, and trust in a horseshoe to bring them prosperity. The farmer who has no use for soil survey plants his potatoes in the moon. (5) We are prejudiced by tradition. Fortunate is the one whose traditions are in the line of truth, and most unfortunate is the one who is traditionated in the direction of error. As a rule children choose the, religion and the politics of their parents. The story is told of a political propagandist, who felt that he had completely demolished every possible defense of his opponent.s. At the conclusion of his address he pompously put the question: "Is there a man in this house who dare admit that he is a Democrat?" After a pause, a tall, lean man arose and said, "I am a Democrat." "And why are you a Democrat?" asked the speaker curtly.- "Well," said the man, "my grandfather was a Democrat, and my father was a Democrat, and so I am a Democrat." "Then," said the Republican politician, "suppose your grandfather had been a thief and your father had been a thief would you be a ?" At this point he was interrupted by the man on the floor who said, "In that case," said the man, "I suppose I should be a Republican." One of the chief reasons for tradition being such a strong factor in the Pull of Prejudice is what may be termed the priority of mental occupancy. We all know that early notions are

almost immovable, but we fail oftentimes to recognize that through the law of priority of occupancy our first notions concerning anything hold with tremendous tenacity for place and weight in the formation of judgment. There is more truth than poetry in the couplet here paraphrased: "Thrice is he armed who hath his quarrel just, But four times he who gets his lick in fust." IV. The More Superficial our Thinking the More Hasty our Judgments. The immature judgment points quite un-

318 IMPROVEMENT ERA erringly to a likelihood of a high percentage of error in the carelessly collected, eagerly accepted, and uninspected mass of information. V. What Prejudice Reveals. It reveals mental laziness. The person whose judgment is faulty, when he has an opportunity to have a correct judgment, is guilty of serious mental make-shift-ness. There is a tremendous responsibility attached to having a conscienpe or moral judgment that puts the brand right upon conduct that is intrinsically wrong. VI. Resisting the Pull of Prejudice. (1) Examine the authenticity of information, and find out how much is rumor and how much is record; discriminate between a theory and a proved fact. (2) Consider Jthe relative values of accepted information and give each its relative place in the judgment. (3) Consider both sides of every question and the many sides of some questions. (4) Make allowance for the bias of personal interest, if there be any in the case. x

(5) Think of the results of your judgment, and suspend it in the presence of doubt.

(6) Avoid the announcing of a judgment, unless you are sure that it will help more than it will hurt. (7) Carry as a memory gem, "Judge not, that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged." Suggestions 'Sing for an opening number, "Should you feel inclined to censure," and for a closing number, "Shool thy feelings."

References Open-mindedness and Prejudice in Everybody's Ethics, chap. 2, by Ella Lyman Cabot. Facts and Fable in Psychology, Joseph Jastron, chap. 6, "Astrology Phrenology," etc. Vocational Psychology, Hollingsworth, chap. 10, "The Vocational Aptitudes of Women." Questions and Problems 1. In the natural order of things, the order of the eternal fitness of things, will not the Pull of Prejudice draw snap-judgment people off into a class by themselves, where the declaration of the Master will be in full force: "Judge not, that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged?" (Matt. 7:1,2.) 2. Show how snap-judgments indicate shallow-mindedness. 3. Under what circumstances could reading newspapers unfit a juror to sit on a case? 4. Discuss the safeguard against prejudice by considering this scripture: "Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good." 5. Discuss the problem: A person is ethically responsible for the

VITAL PROBLEMS OF LIFE 319

wrongs he does ignorantly, just to the extent that he has had an opportunity to know better. 6. Show the wisdom of taking the revealed word of God as a standard of judgment. 7. Discriminate between revealed truth and asserted fact, and give preference to the former.

Lesson XVII—Meeting Time's Tidal Waves

I. What are Time's Tidal Waves? When any idea, sentiment, or social action rises above the usual level of what is going on, and moves with increasing volume and force until it seems to carry everything before it, we have what may be called one of Time's Tidal Waves. These waves may be destructive or constructive; this lesson deals with the destructive type. They are a kind of human migratory movement, a sort of everybody-doing contagion. They are disastrous, and are of two kinds (A) Artificial. Such as real estate booms, stock booms, card crazes, jazz crazes, etc. (B) Natural. Such as an unusual demand for potatoes, causing the farmer to turn his wheat fields over to the production of the tuber; temporary high wages of stenographers filling schools of business and depleting the normal schools.

//. Characteristics of Time's Tidal Waves. (1) All of Time's Tidal Waves run abnormally high. (2) They all promise the delusion of perpetual advancement. (3) They all break and recede in the midst of hopes. (4) The recession of every one is disastrous. (5) Each one sinks in forgetfulness before the next one rises.

III. The Danger of Drifting With Time's Tidal Waves. or hears A good mariner will put to sea when he sees white caps to make safe attempt the roar of breakers. He knows that any on a tidal wave means danger and most likely shiplanding doing, buying what everybody wreck. Doing what everybody is everybody is financial joyriding on buys, selling what sells Time. The voyage is delightful but the landa Tidal Wave of ing is ?

Safety in Meeting Time's Tidal Wave. (1) Do what IV. the many are neglecting to do.

(2) Do well what the everybody is doing poorly. (3) Buy when the everybody wants to sell. Sell when the everybody wants to buy. (4) practice saving. (5) the everybody is over-spending, When

320 IMPROVEMENT ERA

(6) When the everybody is riotous, be sober. (7) When the everybody is tricky, be honest. (8) When the everybody is discouraged, be up and at it. (9) When the everybody is full of doubts, be full of faith. (10) When the everybody is selfish, be sacrificing. (11) When the everybody is cruelly condemning, kindly commend. The antediluvians were carried to social destruction by one of Time's Tidal Waves, before the deluge began. For three hundred years Noah breasted that wave, and through meeting it, he and his family were made worthy the ark salvation. Time's Tidal Wave of atheism swept the multitude of Babel into hopeless confusion. Jared and his brother stemmed the wave, and with their families peopled the Land of Promise. When He, who stilled the tempest and walked the waves of Galilee and, what is more, stemmed every tide of popular sentiment and public opinion and self-seeking conduct, shall come to claim his own, according to his own words, whom shall he find drifting with Time's Tidal Waves and whom shall he find rowing against them? Should the tidal wave of anarchy threaten our country, we, to whom America is a Land of Promise, government a gift from God, must be ready to man the ship of state which shall meet without disaster the tidal wave of disloyalty.

Questions, Problems, and Suggestions Discuss the ouija board craze as one of Time's Tidal Waves. 1.

2. What is the confessed result of the social scare that banished

religion from the public schools? 3. What will be the result of the "no children" policy in the apartment house? 4. What are the dangers of the rising tidal wave fallacy, "Better to rent than own a home?" 5. What town or community tidal wave needs meeting in your community? 6. What national tidal wave is threatening our country: 7. Have a short address on the children's crusade. 8. Discuss it as an example of a fatal tidal wave of time, a psychic epidemic, a religious runaway. 9. Discuss the action of the Canadian government in sending a force of mounted police to stop the stampede of oil prospectors into the region of the far North. 10. How shall we build proof against Time's Tidal Wave? (Matt. 7:24, 25, 26, 27.) 11. Reforms of the constructive type are social tidal waves that wash pearls of prosperity up on the shore, and carry decaying drift wood out to sea. 12. What of birth-control as one of Time's Tidal Waves? See Gospel Doctrine, Joseph F. Smith, pages 349-350 and 362-363. 13. Discuss the seership security against being carried away by Waves of Worldliness, as recorded in the Book of Mormon (I Nephi 15:21 to 29.)

VITAL PROBLEMS OF LIFE 321

14. Quote a stanza from a Latter-day Saint Sunday school hymn that

appears to be strikingly fitting as a memory gem for this lesson, and that is related to the 13th problem.

References Book of Mormon, I Nephi 8; 11:35, 36. Book of Mormon, I Nephi 15:21-29. Gospel Doctrine, Joseph F. Smith, pages 349-350 and 362-363. Instincts of the Herd in Peace and, War, Trotter, pages 114-115. Human Traits, Edmond, "The Social Nature of Man." Lesson XVIII. —Review This review contains a question from each of the seventeen preceding lessons. Answer the questions, explain the problems, and give the name of the lesson in which each question, problem, or quotation is found.

Questions and Problems 1. In what particular is secret prayer superior to any other kind of prayer? 2. In which of the following lines of inner adversity are you conscious of winning out: procrastination, exaggeration, camouflage, selfishness, petulance, hasty judgment, pessimism, grumbling? 3. Why is it true that of all the pushes of poverty the push toward the work habit is the greatest? 4. Discuss the proposition: Most people are poor because of their unteachableness. 5. Discuss the wisdom or the lack of wisdom in one of our greatest financiers who said that he would leave his children no money but a lot of unfinished enterprises of production which, if carried out, will increase their inheritance, while if they are not carried out, the obligations on them will swallow them up. 6. In the light of history discuss the proposition: Excess in accumulation must be paid for by radicalism in distribution. 7. Who shares the responsibility of any work accepted under the call of the priesthood? 8. Why is the honoring of a verbal contract more productive of confidence than payment of a secured note? 9. Make an application of Tennyson's stanza: "Not once or twice in our rough island story, the path of duty is the way to glory." 10. What historical connection is there between lofty mountain peaks and liberty? 11. Name the first three indispensable inquiries to be made in the choice of a vocation. 12. Discuss the probable results of celebrating the return of missionaries. 13. Discuss the proposition: It were better for the earth to be cursed, and man have the opportunity for work, than for the earth to remain blessed and man be cursed with a life of ease. (See Genesis 4:17, sixth line. 14. Write a set of rules of your own for securing freedom from debt. 15. State what you consider to be the best rule for the control of bias. 16. Show how snap judgments indicate shallow-mindedness. 17. What are the dangers of the rising tidal wave fallacy, "Better to rent than to own a home"?