Don't Call a Chicken a Duck unless you have DNA Evidence

Addressing the Other

Photo by Erik Eastman on Unsplash

'The other' is always addressed as an elusive idea, just out of reach and so foreign to the eclectic human palate. For the idea of 'the other' to perpetuate, it is necessary for the human mind to create clear boundaries between right and wrong, black and white. The concept of Them and Us. Granted, concepts like right and wrong are integral for the survival of a sense of ethical civilization, but at what point does conviction become delusion?

DNA Evidence

I use the example of DNA to underline the key point of this ... diatribe?... as it is considered to be the one indisputable type of evidence. Aside from the improbable appearance of an evil twin, DNA is usually the be all and end all of any case. This is indicative of one of the greatest flaws in the human psychic. In life, things are seldom so clear cut. Beliefs, morals - these are all products of human thought. Whether you believe in a a higher power, chemical genesis (or any hybrid of the two), the fact remains that the human mind is far from perfect. So how can we be so convinced that our convictions, products of the imperfect mind, are perfect? A distorted mirror can never reflect a true image.

A Discussion on Chickens and Ducks

What is the 'other'? Most people would pin this down to a narrow category of people - people of different colour, gender, sexuality, and culture. The truth is, that they are not far off, but this is like attempting to eradicate a weed by pruning instead of pulling it out by the roots.

The 'other' is a mindset, a set of conviction and beliefs that is foreign to our own. The danger that we see in worldbuilding and writing stems from this very problem, the belief that there is them and us, while in truth we are beings of shared experience. Thus, instead of approaching the 'other' from a place of difference we should be looking at it as a matter of the familiar and unfamiliar.

There are many incredible resources available that address writing the 'other', and I will not endeavor to outdo them, instead I am going to talk about a marginalized aspect of the problem: That of belief. To an atheist, preaching G-d is as ridiculous as positing that a chicken is a duck. To a believer, the claims of an atheist are equally as absurd. To each of us, there is either a right or wrong solution, but until someone produces that DNA strip of truth, our solutions are only that. A finite solution to an infinite problem.

How to Avoid Condemning Poultry

EDUCATION! EDUCATION! EDUCATION!

That's only the first step. Educating yourself is invaluable. This is not just a matter of pulling up the wiki and memorizing those facts, but it is about the human experience. An idea can never exist in isolation. People do not believe in an idea or a concept because of the facts, or because this is what they have been taught, but because something about the idea speaks to a deep part of them.

The type of research I am referring to here is not about the concept itself, but about the ethos of the people who conform to it. This is where the concept of the foreign and familiar comes in. WE have all experienced a myriad of emotions in our lives - the hopeful, the despairing, the gratuitous, the maligning - and it is from this primordial soup of emotion that our world perspective springs.

When we look at the world from this point of view, the differences we see become much easier to overcome. A person with unwavering faith in g-d may simply have channeled the wonder at the world that you assigned to science. Just because they have reacted to life in a different manner to you DOES NOT MAKE THEIR OUTLOOK ANY LESS VALID! (Valid, mind you, is not synonymous with ethical, fair or moral).

What to do About it:

Arguments

Give your other a valid argument. Even though to you or your character they other may be misguided, they deserve more than a byline that will collapse as easily as paper scaffolding. Not everyone needs to be right, but they are not fools for having a different belief system to you. If someone who identifies with other were to pick up your book, or play that character, would they feel validated by the argument presented? Remember that every belief system is flawed, so don't strive to make the familiar perfect, but allow the foreign to be bathed in flaws.

Variety upon Variety

Remember that there are not simply two houses of thought. Within each house there is an entire spectrum of opinions - or to extend the fowl metaphor, each bird has a different types of feathers that make up their plumage. Having one token 'other' just to prove that you are accepting and diverse, is usually readily recognizable. Just like ideas don't exist in vacuum, it is highly unlikely that there is single believer of idea. You don't need to double your cast just to fit this all in, but make sure that you acknowledge that they are part of a whole. If they are the only believer, why is that? Are people prosecuted for their belief? Are they in hiding? Are they afraid of how they will be percieved?