PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

I have always felt with some pride that I have kept my prejudices to the lowest possible level that is humanly possible. Yes, I do quiver  whenever I hear someone sound the H at a beginning of a word where it should be silent. Yes I do tremble with slight disgust at the way some people eat their food and yes, I do think most women work more harmoniously together than do most men. The former two prejudices I deal with silently, the latter I talk loudly about but back it up with facts.

I recently watched an episode of the UK, TV series VERA and grew green with envy at the quality of the writing. It revealed prejudice in a subtle, yet honest way with clever story telling, leading me to think one way, and so exposing my own deep rooted prejudice, one I thought I did not possess, and then completely turning that path of the story on its head, making me see how wrong I was to jump to a certain conclusion. It pertained to a particular ethnic group and while my prejudicial thought was only a temporary moment in my life it shows how easily we can all be roused/led to think and feel and do the wrong thing. So I admire how clever are such contemporary TV shows that deal with such issues in a serious yet entertaining way. It begs the question of whether entertainment should be used more to flesh out ideals and prejudices, rather than dictatorial editorials and political clashes. The world might be a more harmonious place if it did.

This ties in with my belief that good comedy, whether stand up or situational, has always manged to make people laugh first and ponder on the issues later. A brilliant tool to break down barriers. Whether self pride can be broken down entirely is something we all have to deal with but as they say, pride comes before a fall. So I hope the next generation of writers,whether in novels or for  any other form of media have the skills to debate the darker side of human nature with honesty, factual evidence and yet in an interesting and entertaining way. Long live good writers.

😍