Tell it to Steven Hawking. A person's physical stature does not limit his/her potential for work that does not rely on his/her physical stature (e.g., English teaching, as well as physics). The cultural attitude that those who are discriminated against because they do not fit the culturally desired norm should be outcast or should be provided for by special environments that can be sold as entertainment venues to those who will not deal with their own prejudices is a cultural attitude that perpetuates discrimination against all who are 'different'. The problem here, as elsewhere, is a matter of dehumanizing those who are 'different' - prejudicial culture that regiments anything that deviates from its standards, rather than dealing with the prejudice itself. Why not have a theme park within which 'foreigners', with all their funny habits, can be kept, so that they do not disturb the 'normality' of cultural prejudices? Actually, there could be many: one for 'black people', one for Tibetans, one for Japanese, one for gay people, one for Han Chinese people who have given up their 'traditional' clothing for 'western-style' clothing (e.g., the great majority of Chinese, over the past century or so) - in fact we could subdivide and subdivide until nothing was left but mutual nonrecognition. All these would help to maintain the narrow identities of 'normality' that can be relied upon to advance support the cultural attitudes that promote the continuing inability of people to recognize each other as human, and to celebrate and accept their differences - not as entertainment items, no matter how 'cute', but as full human beings. How different is all this from apartheid?
This effort to maintain prejudice can, of course, be profitable to those who invest in it, and convenient for social engineers and political elites who want to maintain an elite power status by reliance on it.
The place is an insult to our common humanity and a spotlight on cultural attitudes of exclusion. Those who find that they enjoy such displays should take a good look at the nature of the culture that has formed them so narrowly. Cultures change; cultures have always changed; cultures are presently changing and will continue to do so; there is nothing sacred about cultural attitudes. Our common humanity is an ongoing project, and those who imagine they are not part of such a project are simply contributing their own blindness to it, and limiting themselves in the process. It's not the 'dwarves' who are the problem, its the people who will not accept them as within the boundaries of 'us'.
Gulls arrival in Kunming warrants special treatment
Posted bySo now add birds to the long list of things that we shouldn't have any contact with.
Man misses 1 billion yuan jackpot by single number
Posted by@Dazzer: But I am interested in answers, and what they indicate (e.g., when few people acquire enormous amounts of wealth, influence, power and publicity and then give some of it to causes that THEY choose, what does this indicate? And what does it indicate to recognize that they can choose NOT to do so and be protected by the law?).
Man misses 1 billion yuan jackpot by single number
Posted by@HFCampo: in your history research you might notice a number of changes in the world over the past 2000 or 200 years, or perhaps over the past 2 minutes, and that even history written by 'the rich' makes a note of these changes.
@Dazzer: the system that put all that wealth in the hands of the people you mention is the same system that created the problems these people now have been empowered to decide to influence, as THEY choose, in one way or another. I didn't choose to give them this power to decide where money should go, did you?
Man misses 1 billion yuan jackpot by single number
Posted byIt's not that the poor play the lottery because they're greedy, it's that greed is the basis of the whole system of exploitation/'suck-cess' and control of production/distribution that assures there will be few rich/powerful and many poor/weak. So the poor pay for gym equipment in parks for the elderly, who are not too well-off either.
@HFCampo: what makes you think the world doesn't change? When did history stop?
Man misses 1 billion yuan jackpot by single number
Posted by@Dazzer, I agree that lotteries are sort of a fun game for many. However, they have been labelled as a tax on the poor.