ThirstyFish

Each and every creature has its own personality. This male Red-winged blackbird is different than all other Blackbirds. Each one has his own behavior patterns, cognition and emotions. A bird is not just a bird. A blackbird is not just another blackbird. This blackbird is different than the next blackbird...

Generalization and classification are central to logic and human reasoning. They are abstractions. As useful as generalization, classification and abstractions can be, they are also a major source of error, of pain, of suffering, of ignorance and of injustice. By generalizing, we make things predictable, but if every specimen, every person has his or her own unique personality, then how accurate are our predictions? We say, all blackbirds, all males, all females, all Americans, all Europeans, all Christians, all Buddhists, when it's actually some. And the greater the abstraction, the more we err; Take for example when we are talking about good-and-bad. Talking about all males, all Americans, all Christians become meaningless in this and other abstract contexts - yet we do it. Without distinguishing, we say and think, Republicans are..., Americans are..., Russians are..., homosexuals are..., Christians are...