There’s something within each of us that time, even a lifetime, can’t overcome. This something isn’t necessarily consciously acknowledged. It simply guides us through life. If this something is a word, it dictates our lives. Sometimes it’s an untreated prejudice.
Where does it come from? From family upbringing, from the atmosphere of social life, from the surrounding culture. Prejudice isn’t necessarily accompanied by words. It’s right there with you, and that’s it.
You throw prejudice out the door, and it creeps in through the window. It determines your behavior, even if you’re not aware of it.
Prejudice is your invisible shackles. It’s always with you, wherever you go and whatever you do. You can’t escape it. You can only pretend it doesn’t exist.
Prejudice is the strongest and deepest motive for behavior—hidden or overt.
Does prejudice interfere with your life? Absolutely, but you get used to it, like a callus. It’s a bit of a nuisance, but it’s livable.
Every finished product of family, national, or social upbringing always carries a complex of prejudices, and they’re relatively constant.
It’s impossible to get rid of a prejudice. You can only reduce its strength, hide it deeper, convince yourself it doesn’t exist. Self-control helps. But as soon as it weakens, in moments of relaxation or simply weakness, when you’re alone, the suppressed, hidden prejudice reappears as if you hadn’t mentally bound it hand and foot, as if you hadn’t gotten rid of it, as if you hadn’t driven it into the subconscious.