When I read this chapter, my first thought about how disgust can be a sort of tool to keep your distance from something or someone, like how humans try to create a separate identity from other groups of living beings, was that it seems quite ignorant to believe that we are "better" in some way just because we feel that we hold qualities that we deem more advanced or more fit for a definition of an objectively greater lifestyle than others do. When I try to make sense of it, what I think makes this argument somewhat believable to some people is the fact that it makes them feel more powerful than other, different groups of people. People want to survive, naturally, and what helps aid that cause in an odd way is to make others feel that they are lesser than you.
This is where disgust comes in as the language of dominance: by making it clear that you disapprove of someone's lifestyle/life choices, you are trying to do some damage to them just by way of being disgusted. Whether or not it is believable that you have power over another, the fact that you can muster up the courage to make someone else feel as though they are doing something wrong can alter the perceptions and beliefs of the afflicted. What better way to make others feel bad when you want them to than to create an imaginary boundary between you and them? Disgust seems to do this efficiently and effectively enough that we have been using it for as long as we can remember.
This also seems to require acknowledgement on their part, but can also be used with any other living being that doesn't have the ability to communicate back to you (ex: non-human animals). Since all you really need to benefit yourself and climb higher in the ladder of authority and confidence is your own belief that you are better than others, practice of mental/thought-driven disgust will do the trick just fine.
Finally, the hopefully obvious problem I see with disgust, at least in today's society, is that it does quite some harm to people who don't deserve it and it really has to reasonable use. Also, we're no longer living in an era where we are so segregated and different from each other that we aren't able to see the similarities between ourselves and realize that we can all live together without having to resort to meaningless bashing based on subjective assessments of qualities that don't make us better than each other, but rather make us better with each other.
I really do wish that we live in an era where we are no longer segregated and different from each other. I wish that people as a whole could see the similarities between ourselves and realize that we could live together. However, I think you give people far more credit than they deserve. Disgust has such an impact in the law and in shaping society through sources such as the media because we are still so married to the idea of people not being equal. This is seen by the clear segregation of neighborhoods by race. This surpasses any assumption that it is simply due to socioeconomic status. Even when controlling for that factor there is still clear segregation. Women are still seen in society as inferior to men, regardless of how far people seem to think we have come. Women are still getting paid less for doing the same jobs as men. So why do these disparities and countless more still exist? I would argue that it is partly because of the socially ingrained perception of disgust. The historical significance of slavery is still being seen today through disgust that is seen at black Americans. Neighborhoods are so segregated today because there is still this feeling of disgust towards black Americans resulting from the implications of slavery that determined black American's place in society. There is no disgust towards women or black Americans because of a deep wisdom. We have this feeling of disgust because the systemic exploitation of these minorities is beneficial to those "on top."
ReplyDelete