Labels
arun on Jan 18 2011 at 3:55 am | Filed under: looking out, others wisdom | Click here to go HOME | or find out about SUBSCRIBING TO THE PIT |
Thanks to Kaya who forwarded this link to me of a thought provoking & inspiring video about psychiatric labels and kids…
This video particularly takes aim at ‘psychiatric conditions’ but i feel similar criticism could be made of all sorts of labels, even self imposed ones. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an absolute label hater, i just think they are to often used for evil instead of goodness 
What do i mean?
Labels are short hand descriptions and generalisations with both the strengths and weaknesses that come from that. For me they can often be the means to quickly access trends in ideologies, philosophies, groups of people, resources or approaches.
Having said that i think once a label has been used to discover such things its wise to just as quickly shed the label… as labels have a funny way of flipping from being a platform from which to explore new fields and horizons, to becoming a ceiling which can keep you boxed in (and others out).
In the past ive found some labels invaluable in accessing ideas in politics to parenting that would have taken me years to unravel otherwise. But i also know that ive all too often stuck myself in such labels and used them to make others wrong—judging them and keeping them at a distance.
As i get older and see the way ive done this in the past i tend to be less judgemental (its all still there, but i listen to it less) and hopefully more open to the world and the many choices within it…
oh come now! are you a labelist? Personally, I love labels. I read thoroughly the labels of everything I buy in the supermarket. Labes are *VITAL* for a functioning life. How else would I be able to tell the jar of icing sugar from the jar of cornflour from the jar of plain wheat flour? Without labels, my cakes would be a total disaster, and that, my friend, could spell the end of society as we know it. TOTAL ANARCHY!
=P