Equanimity or Unequivovality: Of Societal Biases and Prejudices

The society perceives us as more than mere humans. Or rather, sees us as mere pawns in its inexhaustible game of class-based chess. Right from our birth, our movements and actions are controlled by society in the guise of its class-based norms and stipulations. In that, we are all restricted and controlled, our freedom only to the extent that society allows or deems fit to bequeath us. We may like to think otherwise, but no matter how extensive and elaborate our arguments, our calls of negation will always be overruled in the end. Simply because, even amongst us who talk against prejudices in the name of class, there are those who silently wait for the catcalls and the agitation to subside so that the supposed superior classes get to take their rightful place in the societal hierarchy. 

The rationale behind the existence and the continued sustenance of societal class is quite convoluted. Where in some countries, religion and race dictates the prevalence of societal class bias, in certain others, it is monetary profuseness that stipulates the divisions of the societal sects. And like any evolutionary concept, even these bifurcations adapt and evolve to encompass the contemporary generation. It thus becomes a characteristic that renders the whole paradigm of societal evolution moot. 

People move to newer lands for better opportunities or in some cases, even to avoid the discriminatory prejudice that society puts them through. In case of the latter scenario, what potential immigrants fail to realise that no matter where in the world their transition could and would take them, societal differentiations won’t necessarily stop. On the contrary, these differentiations would present themselves in a new picture thus further subjecting these immigrants to onslaughts more venomous and demoralising, than the bouts of indigenous verbal whipping could ever be. 

Each and every one of us wants to make his presence felt in the world. Every person wishes and aims to do bigger things, achieve the greatest heights of success. But how much do we all wish to escape from this never-ending miasma of discriminatory fumes that holds us all captive in one form or other? Or to put it in a different context, do we get to escape the volatility that society presents before us? Death for those trying to go against societal prejudices, backlashes for communities that defy dogmas created by class-conscious groups and forcible exoduses of masses just because they failed to conform to ludicrous norms and stipulations. These are occurrences that happen in the new millennia, not in the so-called medieval times and are rampant all over the world rather than being isolated to some third-world country. Where then, begs the question, lies the difference between developed and developing, when both evolved and evolving societies are reduced to such social derogation?