No one can worship God or love his or her neighbor on an empty stomach. Gulliver was a doctor in the city of London. He grew tired of the crowed city, though, and decided to take a trip on a ship. He wanted to journey to distant lands, and see many different people and things, he was not running away. He had no idea that his voyage would take him to strange places that cannot be found on any maps. Sailing through the East Indies, the ship hit a terrible storm. Gulliver and five other sailors have to leave the sinking ship behind. They climbed into a small boat and dropped it into the stormy sea. At the mercy of the violent waves, the boat twisted and turned until suddenly it flipped over. The men and women tried to swim against the waves, but the water swallowed up Gulliver and his shipmates. Physiological needs are very powerful because survival depends on their satisfaction. Sometimes when our needs are not being met or we are not being respected, we can feel like Gulliver, metaphorically drowning in life.  In the area of human relations, we find generalizations going on all the time. And while we can sit back and say it is unscientific or silly, nonetheless, it goes on, and it is the cause for a lot of serious conflicts between people. When we generalize about someone, apply that attitude to people like him, and use that generalization, as the image or symbol for the whole group, that is stereotyping. Generalizing is a handy way of lumping things together for easy reference; we all do it at one time, or another. Sometimes generalizations can be good. For example, if you have a good experience with German cars, you may say all German cars are good automobiles. However, many people use generalizations in a negative way, to hurt people they do not know or like.

Some may even fall into the easy temptation of identifying all members of a particular ethnic or racial or career group or gender by the oversimplified symbols of a stereotype. According to common usage in this country, Irishmen all are pretty much alike: have red hair, speak with a deep brogue, are catholic, love shamrocks and the color green, and like to enjoy life and freedom. Suppose you are a young man of non-American heritage, and every time you have to deal with a subject in English, you first have to think it through in your native, because in your home no English is spoken. You may take seconds longer to formulate your words or answer questions. Some who do not know about your language problem may immediately assume you are being slow, stupid, stubborn, or militant. All these assumptions have at one time or another, been stereotypes of those who are not native to America. So international people, in America, must deal not only with their own language barriers, but also with the ignorance or insensitive of the Americans they run into every day. Stereotypes often perform a psychological service for the stereotype.  Sometimes people want to stereotype you so that they can control you or force you into certain situations. Also, stereotypes are creations of an entire society or nation, and they perform the function of building up the national feeling through putting down another nation or group. Such behavior is not really intentional cruelty, ignorance, or hostility to the other groups or nations, though it certainly may be unenlightened or narrow-minded.

For a community of gold miners to share a common belief that some workers are all slow, insidious, treacherous opium smokers, probably had the effect of giving the gold miners (stereotypes) a certain sense of community and justifying the ridiculously low wages they are paid the imported laborers, “coolie wages” regardless of how unfair and false the stereotype was. Some of our social perceptions actually cause people to act in certain ways. If I expect a young man to be crafty, cunning, sly, and inscrutable, I am interact with him I such a way that these are the behaviors he actually shows, which is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. Some women play a submissive, domesticated, naïve part because they know that their husbands expect it. Or they may be afraid to act independent because they think they need husbands for support. So, gritting their teeth, they swallow their more liberated tendencies and play Dumb Dora. Why? Because sometimes men feel insecure around women, or others they view as inferior, who are actually brighter. Today’s woman, and who were once marginalized, somewhat freed from such stifling attitudes about their intelligence professional skills, is willing to run the risk of letting some people’s expectations down in order to be oneself. Others, who are in society, may play dumb, incompetent, or weak if they believe this to be the most advantageous position. For some, who are looked at as inferior, freedom to be equal and compete with mainstream society may be perceived as too threatening, even by some women, who are in power. 

 To be liberated, whether you do it alone or as part of a movement, takes a great deal of courage. Sadly, with the passing of time, the oath of office has become perfunctory. It has lost its meaning to many of our elected leaders. It is hoped that this publication will awaken a desire within the inhabitants of this publication will awaken a desire within the inhabitants of this nation to restore to the Constitution the eminence given it by our Founders, that we may as a nation be blessed with continued freedom, security and happiness. Adherence to the spirit and intent of our Constitution is so important to our Founding Fathers, but many of these new Americans have no idea what the Constitution of the United States of America is. Nonetheless, they think it is cute to replace people who were better than them and then hurt and abuse you when you are struggling. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the measures of government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the people, as in ours, it is essential. In proportion as the structure of a government gives forces to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.