There is always something you can learn from any person so general declaration of people as inferior is the thing to avoid.

The point here is that everyone has different rankings in regards to their skill levels at things. It doesn’t matter if it is japanese, self-improvement or good-looks. These are all skills that we have either invested or not invested time into developing (consciously or unconsciously).

So yes we are superior or inferior compared to other people for skills but I don’t think there is much value (if any) in thinking about people like this. The main exception to this seems to be in regards to utilising humans as a resource and determining remuneration for time.

Just to give an example: I met people who suffered and were not willing either to quit their suffering – they prefered to continue suffer instead of going to search for the causes and change. – Is it so wrong if I feel superior in relation to such people regarding personal development?

I think the point is, not to label a person GENERALLY “stupid” just because in SOME aspects of life you got further as them at this time (”at this time” because 5 years later things could be totally different).

@Ariel: As you said ‘every’ judgment is at fault (depending on your perspective offcourse ). Agreed.

@Martin: Thanks for the additions Martin. Interesting point about seeing equality by only thinking of certain elements, a very fair point. I believe you can take out the mind from the equation and then equality is all there is, or rather, there is no equality or inequality.

It seems like every judgment we concoct, no matter how justified or valid it may seem, it’s still just something we’re making up and it has no fundamental truth to determine the worthiness of anyone. As you said, we’re only looking at one little part of who they’re appearing to be from our perspective, not the entirety of who they truly are.

ad #2: Of course our view and impressions are always compiled just on a small subset. Even if you do take everything you know and feel into consideration – there remain still things you simply don’t get aware of because it is simply impossible to get all facts. This is not a mistake, it is a fact in life.

ad #3: To see the persons as equal is again taking just a few aspects into consideration. Eg: Yes, everybody has two ears and a nose. – Oh no, I remember my grandfather got operated at the ear and there remained only one. – So neither this can be said in general. Another example: Everybody wants to be loved. – I am sure there is somewhere a psychopatic that completely disconnected with the world outside so that one doesn’t love nobody and either hasn’t the need to be loved any more.

@Matt:
> We all label people based on our first impressions of them

And in reality there is nothing wrong with it. We also label RSS feeds, web links, contacts, documents – whatever. I think we do it because it is useful. Some people are computer specialists, some are good partners for philosophical discussions and others might be the best if you want to have a romantic dinner or night – Nobody can be equally good in everything and as everybody else.

> Once that label is set in our minds, almost nothing can change it.

This indeed often is a disadvantage of labeling but – as you write also – it is not impossible. I know it from my own experience several times in my life when I wanted something to change or was about to change and from outside people continuously labeled me with the old tags. But sometimes when you are about to change you have to put your foot down and “stake your claim”.

Of course, purposeful conscious thought can change that – just look at what you described in your own post! To get past those labels, we gotta start looking at other people objectively – even if it is a bit hard at first