Which is better? Cure for prejudice or for deafness?

AJWSmith

AJWSmith

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You are offered two magic pills.

One pill will give you 100% hearing, but the people you meet through life remain unchanged in their various prejudices (racist, audist, reverse-audist [or "Deaf-ist"], sexist, etc.).

The other pill will make everyone you meet treat you nicely - as an equal and with respect - always ensuring that you are included in the group, communicating skilfully and accommodating your particular needs so you are never made to feel inferior.

Which pill would you choose?
 
The second one.
If there was nothing up with my ears I would still get picked on for the other things. That and I find the hearing loss less of an issue than some other things I get picked on.
 
You are dealing with different conditions. Prejudice is "faulty"? thinking while deafness is a physical condition- at least to me. Bilateral deaf since December 20, 2006.
Pace: deaf militants: deaf persons can be "prejudiced" as well!

Implanted A B Harmony activated Aug/07
 
Get Real!! Total impossible! Yes, maybe someday you wil be able to take a pill and cure a disability. However, #2 requires YOU take a pill and everyone else changes. Won't never happen, so get real.
 
OK. I see that maybe I wasn't clear enough in why I was asking this question.

My deafness has caused me plenty of misery and I have always wished for a magic pill that would get rid of it, making me the same as all the hearing people around me. But recently I had a eureka moment when I realized that what made me desperately unhappy wasn't my deafness, but how I had been treated by people. If I had been treated as an equal and not laughed at then I wouldn't have felt so awkward and rejected. If people had made an effort to communicate more clearly to me, then I wouldn't have felt excluded and alone. The insight is that it wasn't my deafness that made me unhappy, it was the audist attitudes of the people I encountered that made me miserable. So what I wish for now is for people to treat me with respect and as an equal.

The question asks what you see as the real root of the problem behind the unhappiness of many deaf people. Is it possible to argue that if everyone was hearing then there would be no discrimination or prejudice around deafness.

And it also asks an indirect question: Who's has the greater responsibility? Is it a deaf person who is unable to fix their hearing, or is it the lack of empathy in the other person? Where do you want people to focus their efforts - on increasing understanding, empathy and accommodating the differences; or on making everyone the same so we automatically understand each other?
 
drphil said:
You are dealing with different conditions. Prejudice is "faulty"? thinking while deafness is a physical condition- at least to me. Bilateral deaf since December 20, 2006.
Pace: deaf militants: deaf persons can be "prejudiced" as well!

Implanted A B Harmony activated Aug/07
Click to expand...

That is why I mentioned "reverse-audism" or "deaf-ism" where a deaf person is prejudiced and acts as if they are superior. The question is asking which is more important - to fix the physical condition, or to fix the negative attitudes of people (which they may be unawares of).

rolling7 said:
Get Real!! Total impossible! Yes, maybe someday you wil be able to take a pill and cure a disability. However, #2 requires YOU take a pill and everyone else changes. Won't never happen, so get real.
Click to expand...

I did emphasize that these were magic pills. This is a hypothetical question. I'm not outlining a realistic scenario.
 
Eradicating prejudice is possible by the very means in which it originated. Education, formal or otherwise. Prejudice is taught, so it can be also un-taught.
 
Well, at my age, and being deaf for more than half my time on this planet, a "magic pill" to make me hearing again...no thank you!....Plus, I'm sort of an ol' warrior, fighting predjuice for many years.

Sure, I've "toyed" with the thought of an CI...but I'm not qualified, plus I've been deaf too long and it's my way of life. There will always be prejudice in our world. And I sincerely feel that I became deaf "for a reason", and only the man upstairs knows what the reason is....And perhaps he chose me to be one of his warriors/survivors in this quest. I'm quite happy that I'm not "like everybody else is"....(hearing). I'm "me."....Like it or not....
 
Eradicating prejudice is way bigger than that. It's going to recur with each generation.
 
Cure deafness: if that pill had no side effects, both pyschological and physical and provided perfect listening, why not. But that would be akin to pills that could make you jump 5 meters, run faster than a car, etc etc. In other words, of little significance for my well beeing. I would probably still stick around with deaf people because sign language is so superior.

Pill two, would never take it. Sounds like a nightmare that everyone respect you. That's not real life. I can handle prejudices anyway. Prejudices = people underestimate you, and that only makes it easier for you to get what you want.
 
Cure prejudice. Without it, my life as a deaf person is great and I havent had problems with prejudice in a while. On the other hand, I would be selfish if I took a pill just for myself when there is prejudic against people like my husband.
 
AJWSmith said:
You are offered two magic pills.

One pill will give you 100% hearing, but the people you meet through life remain unchanged in their various prejudices (racist, audist, reverse-audist [or "Deaf-ist"], sexist, etc.).

The other pill will make everyone you meet treat you nicely - as an equal and with respect - always ensuring that you are included in the group, communicating skilfully and accommodating your particular needs so you are never made to feel inferior.

Which pill would you choose?
Click to expand...

I want a pill that will cure my hearing so that I can write one-month journal - documenting how miserable I am everyday cuz of filthy noise... Couldn't sleep, focus, ignore sound like rhythmic banging downstair or next door, honking, yelling, obnoxiously loud car/motorcycle passing by, young fat black woman chatting away about extraordinary trivial matter, "Can you hear me now?" spam, etc.

and then I will pop vicodin/oxy like candies so that I can go deaf again :)
 
AJWSmith said:
You are offered two magic pills.

One pill will give you 100% hearing, but the people you meet through life remain unchanged in their various prejudices (racist, audist, reverse-audist [or "Deaf-ist"], sexist, etc.).

The other pill will make everyone you meet treat you nicely - as an equal and with respect - always ensuring that you are included in the group, communicating skilfully and accommodating your particular needs so you are never made to feel inferior.

Which pill would you choose?
Click to expand...

I'd take the pill to cure deafness so I can communicate at ease with the hearing; why should I make the hearing responsible for my deafness?

If there's a pill that makes me fluent in Spanish and I am in Mexico or a pill to make everyone speak English in Mexico, I'd take the pill to make me fluent in Spanish. Why should they learn English for me?
 
Jiro said:
I want a pill that will cure my hearing so that I can write one-month journal - documenting how miserable I am everyday cuz of filthy noise... Couldn't sleep, focus, ignore sound like rhythmic banging downstair or next door, honking, yelling, obnoxiously loud car/motorcycle passing by, young fat black woman chatting away about extraordinary trivial matter, "Can you hear me now?" spam, etc.

and then I will pop vicodin/oxy like candies so that I can go deaf again :)
Click to expand...

The's the price we pay for hearing. :hmm:
 
Wirelessly posted

Glenn said:
Eradicating prejudice is way bigger than that. It's going to recur with each generation.
Click to expand...

Every change begins somewhere. All it takes is one step at a time in the right direction.
 
Jiro said:
I want a pill that will cure my hearing so that I can write one-month journal - documenting how miserable I am everyday cuz of filthy noise... Couldn't sleep, focus, ignore sound like rhythmic banging downstair or next door, honking, yelling, obnoxiously loud car/motorcycle passing by, young fat black woman chatting away about extraordinary trivial matter, "Can you hear me now?" spam, etc.

and then I will pop vicodin/oxy like candies so that I can go deaf again :)
Click to expand...

Hence I have no guts to deal with various noises for 24/7. *whimpers* Cure could be nice but no thanks.
 
Jiro said:
I want a pill that will cure my hearing so that I can write one-month journal - documenting how miserable I am everyday cuz of filthy noise... Couldn't sleep, focus, ignore sound like rhythmic banging downstair or next door, honking, yelling, obnoxiously loud car/motorcycle passing by, young fat black woman chatting away about extraordinary trivial matter, "Can you hear me now?" spam, etc.

and then I will pop vicodin/oxy like candies so that I can go deaf again :)
Click to expand...

Hey,watch it. I like fat black women. More pushin' for the cushion.:cool2:

AJWSmith: Why do people sit on death row? Because they didnt take the pill so they could be nice to everyone? No such thing.

My deafness has made me miserable,too. My parents especially my asshole mentally ill father forced me attended hearing classes in high-school.(same bullshit in junior high) I failed every class except gym. When I turned 18, I was still a freshman so I quit school. I got my GED in '06. Of course, I was accommodated. (Only my mother was really proud of me) Yes, I had a rough teenage life. Im so over it.

I know it is easy for me to tell you accept yourself and quit feeling sorry for yourself. I have learned to love myself and dont care about other people. You should try it.
 
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