Prejudice

It's remarkable to me how people shape their opinions on things without even having any personal experience with it. I saw on the news yesterday that there were these two women who were ranting about the horrible spread of Harry Potter. There was, of course, a children's psychiatrist on the program to debate the duo, who seemingly attacked the Harry Potter story because they viewed it as being harmful to kids.

How?

Because - according to them - it promotes witchcraft to children. When the host and the psychiatrist both responded by saying that it pits good guys against bad guys, it has endearing messages of love and kindness, and yadda yadda yadda, one of the ladies made the following assertion: she claims that it glorifies white magic, and demonizes black magic, but in reality, all magic is evil.

Now...why would she say something like this? Stereotype.

What they were actually trying to do here is just demonize witchcraft, as if it's some kind of religion in and of itself. Magic (magick, whatever) is a tool used in certain religious ceremonies as a tool for further endowment of experience. It's akin to the sacraments that we've seen used in the Christian tradition. Magick doesn't *do* anything of itself, but it creates a movement in the person's mind to go forward with events that help them achieve their own particular ease...in order to experience further the divine touch.

I fear I will find my self lost in my own words.

My astonishment, however, was with these women. They are SO not alone with the bigotry. And why do they feel this way about "witchcraft"? I would presume, having not known these ladies, that they have been raised with such notions that this particular belief structure is "evil." It's a grandfathered prejudice which cultivates through ignorance.

When there is time, we should always examine our prejudices of ideas. Why is it we feel the way we do about things? Is it because we KNOW them to be bad or good, or because that's what we've been told? Do the ideas that present such a bad impression really represent the idea itself?

We should never limit ourselves to our preconceived notions. Try not to form an opinion unless you have really educated yourself on both sides of a debate. There are always two sides to every coin.