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%JACK'S S & JILL'S T 810212
Jack says that S is more important than T. Jill says
that T is more important that S. Jack denigrates T
because of the perceived importance of S. Jill denigrates
S because of the perceived importance of T. They both
perceive denigration as an appropriate means to
affirmation. Because of each other's denigration of each
other's value, they engage in more intense denigration of
each other's values, becoming more and more blind to that
which the other has to offer. Through denigration they
become more and more exclusive.
Jack and Jill need to recognize the evil which is
inherent in denigration, and the way in which love
motivates mutual affirmation. They need to learn to
denigrate denigration, rather than to denigrate each
other's primary values. Denigration is not an appropriate
means to affirmation, but in a paradoxical way, while
trapped in the pattern of using denigration, they may need
to turn the means of denigration upon itself as a means of
escaping the prison of using denigration as a means of
affirming cherished values
Denigration is not in and of itself an appropriate
primary value; it is not an end which properly justifies
any means. If denigration is to be valued, it is to be
valued in terms of how fruitful it is as a means to
primary ends, as a means to worthy values. We may
fruitfully denigrate another person or another's values
only if such denigration bears desirable fruit. We may
feel that in the short term denigration is helpful, but
that feeling needs to be examined carefully to see if it
is not misleading us. The short-term advantages of
denigration may not be great enough to justify the long-
term costs in alienation, estrangement, misunderstanding,
mutual ignorance, frustration, violence and the decay of
our community in which we may be whole persons.
Denigration is a means to exclusivity and
specialization appropriate to elitists---who affirm their
specialty by denigration other people's specialties.
People who engage in denigration thereby declare their
insecurity, their fear that other people's affirmations
threaten their own being. To minimize the practice of
denigration we need to help people feel more secure. We
need to exchange free gifts of security known and enjoyed
as the freedom to be safely vulnerable.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
www.essayz.com Search for Integrity and Honesty
(On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)
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