Throughout history, there are records of attacks, battles, and wars based on the different beliefs of each side. The Civil War, modern day terrorists’ attacks, and even the Revolutionary war are/were fought to protect beliefs and freedom. Those people judged others to an extreme, and people of the same community judged them for their extreme views as well. In any culture, they will judge the ones who do not fit into their normal standards of society. It’s often those who cannot fit others’ way of living; judging them for their own misfortune. This idea is better understood through the book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick, by showing comparisons between the main character’s lifestyle, and common societal differences.
It’s often whenever you study a different culture you will find a tradition, or another way in which they live that different from your own lifestyle. Many times you think that it is strange, or bizarre, but to them it is normal. Do you judge them? You may think that they are weird. The same thing occurs to people within the same community, just not as obvious. Differences in a community can mean judging your neighbor, your friend, even maybe a family member. The things they own, how much money they have, how smart they are, and many other conditions are factors that everyone is judged on. People in the community could be jealous of your success, or disgusted on how you live badly you live in comparison to them. Truthfully, that is how communities judge others, by their own traditions and way of life. They compare you to themselves; that is how they determine whether you are normal, if they should be jealous, or if they should be disgusted, or just feel bad for your situation.
The differences usually leads to just judging others. A community would most likely just judge others in their community or society. However, when it involves a different society living alongside another society things tend to become more violent. Two different ways of living that exist together in an area can pose a threat to each other because both societies do not like the different lifestyles living together.
Now, many people would believe that the world would be a better place if we could just live in peace. As much as that is true, it is not human nature to be completely accepting and peaceful towards each other. Also it is much more difficult to keep peace between a few cultures let alone the whole world. Each culture would have to be happy with the terms of peace, which would most likely include trade, military, and foreign affairs. One other fact is that each culture would have to trust and accept the other, and this would be extremely difficult because as a society we judge those who live differently than us. If a culture halfway around the world, is to be trusted with life threatening weaponry, and we know nothing about their culture we would be uneasy because we don’t understand their way of life. Looking throughout the history of civilization, there are countless battles, wars, and other instances of domination and conquering other land. Why is that? Look at the Roman Empire for example; The Roman Empire took over a huge amount of territory from already present societies and cultures. However, they still took it because for a lot of the land it was owned by barbarians, and other lesser countries. Although the Romans could have kept peace they, decided to conquer.
Judgment towards others occurs in the past and in the present. It will also be around in the future, maybe in different ways. The novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick has many of these judging characteristics in a community within its main plot. The main character, Rick Deckard, faces many troubles between killing androids and trying to be accepted into his community. Many of Rick’s troubles are about how he can live with himself in this world. His job is to find and “retire” androids hiding on Earth. The real problem is that there are peaceful machines trying to live among the humans without problem. However, he must kill them, not because he wants to but because he has to, in order to get paid to live better. He strives to earn this extra money because he wants to buy a real animal, because he only owns a mechanical one. In his culture it is frowned upon to own fake animals and not real ones. He would be judged if others knew he owned a mechanical animal. He told his neighbor it was mechanical because he was trying to buy a real one. He neighbor later responded, “Um, I won’t say anything to anybody here in the building” (Dick 13). Most people would think of him as their lesser. He also said, “But they’ll look down on you, Not all of them, but some” (13). Owning an animal is a sign of wealth, and owning a fake animal is a sign of less wealth. It is a way to have different wealth class in a post-apocalyptic world. Many people will judge think lesser of Rick if people found out that he was incapable of taking care of a real animal. It is a reflection of the present day wealth distribution. Many people will judge others who are less fortunate, and blame them for the misfortune.
A large portion of Rick’s adventure is trying to decipher how to tell the difference between a human and an android. Androids are just as smart as humans, but lack empathetic abilities. Some of these androids are so human-like it is difficult to decide whether he should “retire” them or not. The human population judges the androids for not being like them, human, although they are extremely close. They become scared and violent to this different culture. The judge the androids for being different even though they have no control over it, and even try to live like the humans. Once the humans began hunting the rogue androids, the androids only to chance to survive was to run, hide, and attack back if necessary. Now both sides are violent towards each other, because of few differences.
However, not all of the population are judgmental and violent towards the androids. John Isidore, an outcast, has found an android and has become friends with her, and tries to protect her. He knows that she is an android but they have gotten to know each other and have become friends, and they ignore the differences they have. John believes in Mercerism, so he uses empathy towards any person or thing, including androids. He accepts them as his equals, which is what other people would need to do, and also ignore a single difference that is not easily noticeable.
During several parts of the novel, you question whether different characters are truly human or if they are androids and even the characters don’t know. This theme is an example of how humans and androids are so similar yet, they still try to kill each other. Although they both live in the same community, and live harmoniously, the second they find out one of them is different, whether it be an android or a “chickenhead”, like Isidore, then they become judgmental and violent towards them. The culture is that they are not to live among the normal humans. Even humans are judgmental towards each other, just not violent. Most of the humans don’t even realize that they are living among androids until something happens to expose them.
It all connects to the humans’ level of empathy towards another living thing. How you treat other living things is a huge way of living. Mercerism, the main religion, teaches this important ideology. Not being able to take care of another animal goes against it, which is why others will judge someone. “Living things” is also a key word in the religion, because androids are not considered alive, which allows them to hate and destroy them. This culture from the book, reflects the culture of today’s world. People will judge others if they cannot live to their own standards. Also like the androids that escaped from Mars to seek freedom on Earth, many people do not like illegal immigrants, or other groups from other cultures come out of nowhere and live among them.
Additionally, empathy is taught better through experience, however, some situations just cannot happen. That is why reading books, and novels allow you to be put in that situation. In the article, “Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy, Study Finds”, by Liz Bury she quotes David Kidd, “In literary fiction, the incompleteness of the characters turns your mind to trying to understand the minds of others.” By not knowing everything about the character, and what the character is feeling you try to fill in those blanks, and in the end begin to learn what the character is feeling. You learn about the character better and you also learn what characters are feeling also. The article continues to say, “…proved that reading literary fiction enhances the ability to detect and understand other people’s emotions, a crucial skill in navigating complex social relationships” (Bury). Maybe if people were able to learn what others are feeling, and what their situation is like then they would not be as judgmental or violent. That is a major part of the novel’s religion, where people have an empathy box that shares memories of other people. They are all connected and they feel physically and emotionally what others felt in that memory.
Continuing the idea of empathy, from the website, Cyborgolgy, they have an article called “What Becomes of Empathy” by Tim Recuber that describes what empathy really is. The author quotes a great point by Jesse Prinz of how empathy is limited. He says, “Empathy is partial; we feel greater empathy for those who are similar to ourselves.” Those that live in our culture, share similar characteristics and living style help of feel better empathy. The article used the Orlando shooting as their first example. The author knew someone from that event that had died, he felt empathy for the family because he knew the person, he feels some kind of grief and can somewhat relate to the family about how they feel. However, there is one major thing to know about empathy, and that is the difference from sympathy. Empathy is when you know exactly what another person is feeling because you have experienced the same situation to a certain extent. Sympathy is only when you feel grieve for another person because they have to deal with a situation you have never experienced yourself.
Empathy is a way to better connect with others. From Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the relationship between humans and androids is based on differences. They judge them and are violent towards the androids because they don’t considered them alive, therefore they don’t need to be empathetic towards them. The humans don’t understand the androids and think of them as only machines, even though they are highly intelligent and are so close in comparison to humans. If one day, the humans decided to accept the androids for them and empathized with them, there would be more peace on Earth. Even though people cannot tell the difference between humans and androids except for a single test looking for empathy, there is still a large gap between the two cultures. Police would be able to focus on the real criminals that are terrorizing everyone. Wealth status would be the only other way to judge others, mainly from what kind of animal they have and whether or not they are alive or mechanical. Humans today are judgmental and violent towards each other because of different cultures or beliefs. Wealth and their way of living are other forms of separating people and judging them. Empathy is a way to unite people together if they can understand what others experience, and also what other people believe in.
Worked Cited
Bury, Liz. “Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy, Study Finds.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.
Dick, Philip K. Blade Runner: (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep). New York: Ballantine, 2007. Print.
Recuber, Tim. “What Becomes of Empathy? – Cyborgology.” What Becomes of Empathy? – Cyborgology. The Society Pages, 20 July 2016. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.
