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The arrogance of European classics concerns the world-wide delusions they create in everybody involved. A way of reversing delusions is to discover how and why they came about and then reversing the process. To give a personal example, the Western Philosophy taught in my sophomore year at the University of Michigan made no sense. First, by them using the "sink or swim" approach and starting somewhere near the middle of the onset of Western philosophy; by making no attempt to explain the "big picture" of how philosophy fit into my life; and by my inability to see how what White males thought about life had relevance to my life meant that I was lost on the first day of class; had no curiosity related to it; and lacked any desire to learn about it. Second, in contrast to having been reared as a boy inside an all-Black community where the Spiritual and the Subjective were dominant, neither were mentioned in my philosophy class. This kept me from getting "grounded" in or even oriented to the subject. There was no "common ground" whereby the instructor and I could start off together with the same understanding and proceed in the same direction. Third, the instructor sprinkled big words throughout philosophical discussions--words either undefined or poorly defined-words for which I could not get answers in dictionaries or in the text. Fourth, since Europeans avoid focusing on synthesis, their philosophy lacked a meaningful conclusion and no evolving "higher level" thoughts.

In subsequent years and when researching all types of subjects, some of the big words used in my college philosophy classes appeared and showed themselves to be empty-- facades-having no significant substance behind them. This discovery relieved me from feeling that there was something wrong with me from not being able to understand what my instructors were saying. My sense of: "They know but I don't," was replaced with: "They do not know what they are talking about and simply display themselves as pseudo-intellectuals." From having researched hundreds of words and topics per year, I concluded that European "authorities" and "experts" were grossly deficient-and more often wrong-- in every subject I investigated. Answers as to why such an arrogant presentation came when I studied Classism of the ancient Greeks.

Classism originated in a school that had devised a set of arbitrary, concretely detailed rules purporting to represent the final and absolute criteria of aesthetic value. Think about that! Its approach was to transform abstract principles into concrete prescriptions and to replace creation with imitation. Yet, the Classicists' proponents had no sound answer as to why their rules or reasons were to be accepted as valid. Their justification included the usual appeal to tradition; to scholarship; to the prestige of antiquity; and more importantly "because I said so!!" Nevertheless and amazingly, Classism was regarded as the representative of Reason. In its evolution Classism increasingly favored an individual or group based on their societal rank while discriminating against outsiders-a process that extended into Racism, Sexism, and similar "isms." Despite generating social dissention, social climbers still aspired to join so as to belong to such a prestigious prejudicial group. By recently "flip-flopping" (so as to conform to "political correctness"), Classism now has the "nerve" to accuse a person or institution of gross insensitivity toward minorities. Yet secretly and hypocritically, its original racist/sexist mindset continues to be subtly culturally transmitted. Hence, prejudice remains at a repressed level and shows without the person's awareness. This carries over into Europeans' educational course selections and teaching methods which are forced on all non-Europeans indirectly via the "Gun.'

 website: www.jablifeskills.com

Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.

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