Contempt is a social practice of disqualifying another person out of indifference, the person is talking and it is as if he is not saying anything, asks for something and it is as if he does not need it, that is, it is as if he does not exist. It’s contempt: to present behaviors that make someone understand that they are nobody.
It must be said that contempt is a form of moral or psychological violence, an expression of cruelty that some people or groups believe has the right to protest, it is very common for the victim of this practice to be a person in a fragile state or not. considered a lower state.
“Heroes were born from human indifference to the suffering of others. “Nicholas Welles-
Disdain is someone’s symbolic elimination. It is a way to give you a social death, there are many cases in history in which this symbolic murder precedes physical murder, this kind of premise becomes the justification of concrete violence against specific individuals or groups.
Symbolic disqualification or elimination does not always have the same degree or intensity, disdain applies to certain feelings or ideas, and also people as a whole can also affect certain social groups, such as different forms of xenophobia or discrimination.
An idea is scorned when you say, for example, “Is what you say totally wrong?” Either “thinking like this is wrong” or “this way of thinking is stupid. ” The question is: who has the real power to radically disqualify what the other thinks? What can be done is to present arguments to the contrary or evidence to the contrary. Perhaps to expose or raise different ideas, but not to disqualify those of the other.
The same goes for contempt for feelings: “You can’t feel that,” “how can you be afraid?Or are you crazy to worry? All this means denying each other’s symbolic world. Who would have the right”. to ask that certain fears, emotions or anything else disappear?Nobody.
This type of practice is also done socially or collectively, this does not necessarily involve direct mockery or intimidation, indifference is enough for others to feel that they do not matter, this is what many governments and individuals do with people living in poverty. They are invited to vote, but implemented policies do not take them into account.
This also happens daily in some cities. They are designed not to interfere with the traffic of motor vehicles, nor to protect the life of pedestrians, so anyone who owns a car, especially if it is a luxury car, has the feeling that the street belongs to him and that he can overcome everything. . That’s not an exaggeration; more people in the world die from road accidents than from any known disease.
Bureaucracy specializes in contempt. This happens when you have to go through formal processes and they play with their time as if they are doing it for sport, they send you back and forth, sometimes they impose disproportionate requests, hinder the process, etc. , all this to justify that a function that can be performed by a single person must be fulfilled at 20 years. This is due to mismanagement or the exchange of political favors.
Contempt generates violence between those who are the victims, this violence is not diluted: it ends up turning against the person behind it, or turns against the victim himself, making him sick and committing his well-being, in both cases, sooner or later. later, the company ends up paying the price.
It is important, on an individual level, to develop attitudes to combat contempt, we must be aware that for that there are no standard weapons, the right thing to do then is not to get carried away or let them put us in danger or feel inferior. They’re the problem, not us.
On a social level, there is a call to promote inclusion. As different as we are from others, we are all entitled to a place in society. Nothing compels us to share or accept the feelings, ideas or conditions of others. What we have is an obligation to respect their right to be as they are, to think as they think, and to feel how they feel. Our well-being depends heavily on this mental range.