I just spent almost 3 hours watching Kevin Skinner's (winner of the America's Got Talent 2009) videos on Youtube. And a thought crossed my mind ( as the line of the song he sang goes). It is why exactly people are prejudiced about other people( and things in general).
Kevin comes to the audition wearing a Jeans, a pullover and a cap which is pointing backwards. He is greeted by one of the judges and is asked about his work. As the guys says that he has been a Chicken Catchers throughout his life(major part), all people start laughing hysterically. Even before this, while he entered the stage, the other male judge gave a loathing facial expression. And what more, even before Kevin had said two sentences, the female judge declared that he sucked. (By the way, way back I saw on Discovery channel showcase or whatever they call their programs, that a woman is less reserved about trying new things as compared to a man. I think the nonsense conclusion is not correct, or has some exceptions, or perhaps has far too many exceptions to called so anyways).
The judges made some more jokes, crowed laughed some and finally they gave the guya chance to sing.
And boy, what did Kevin Do. Accompanied with his guitar, this guy sang the stripped cover for the Garth Brook's song "If tomorrow never comes" , and what a cover it was. It was spellbinding from the word go. In this video of Kevin's audition you can see the sudden impact the song had on the crowd and judges, the laughter suddenly changed to the singular astonishment. Their mouth which were open laughing were still open, the difference being that they were watching something totally unexpected. And the rest is the history( he won the competition and is hopefully working for his tour and an album).
I spent a lot of time finding the original version of the song and other cover versions. Here is the Garth's original version and this is the version from Ronan Keating's Album. If you watch the kevin's video and compare it the other two, you can see that Kevin's version is full of soul and emotion and stands equally with the two great professional versions.
Now another example of the Prejudice is easily seen in the Susan Boyle's audition for Britain's got Talent. Same thing happens there.
Wops! Perhaps I forgot the Post's Title( I guess everyone will when the see the video.)
Coming back it :
Everyone (including me) approach any new thing with their past experience in mind. Which off course is a good thing. We are beings with a very capable brain facility which should be used while we access situations and things. But this facility can be very misguiding. Rather, I should say misuse of this facility is misguiding. For example, if I have used a cell phone earlier in my life, I should be able to use a new cell phone based on my past experience of such devices. But than I should be open and ready to get accustomed to any new and unknown features in the phone. However, some people (okay, most people) would just not do that. They have almost decided not to accumulate any more information( because they are either lazy or overconfident) and they just won't like to know how to use the new features). And than we hear complaining about the Touch-phone facility in phones.
Keeping preconditioned attitude about non human object is fine to a degree( that too can be dangerous), but than keeping the same attitude towards a Living Person is just pathetic and unfortunate. Because deep down, the person possessing such feelings would treat oneself no different. He has set the standards for the acceptance of the abilities of others and thus has created a bar leveling the them. And while accessing his own abilities in need, this person would collide with this bar and will not find confidence to move on.
In other words, a person can not set two sets of values and visions, i.e, one for himself and the other for the outer world. Cauz it just won't work..
We really can't fool our mind.
