The sin of classification

Of all the sins that befall mankind, the most deadly is the sin of classification.  We do it all the time, we just can’t help ourselves.

From the moment that we are born we are measured, judged and classified.  Weight, colour of eyes, nationality, parental status and even religion, it never stops.  We are numbered, graded, listed, documented and photographed.

We don’t just limit ourselves to humans though.  Birds, plants, celestial bodies and endless others are all victims of our sophisticated taxonomies.

We classify to understand, to make sense of our world but to classify is to divide.  The wheat is sorted from the chaff, the pure is distilled from the impure and the successful rise above the failed. 

But why is it such as sin?  Why is it so deadly? 

We classify to understand but classification is not an understanding.  It is only a tool, which in the wrong hands will be used to manipulate.

Classification is used to create a sense of difference and a feeling of belonging or not.  You have the right or wrong religion, skin colour, nationality.  But no classification is pure, there is no absolute black and no absolute white. 

With human division comes conflict, which leads, invariably to death and mayhem.

Be careful.  When classification reaches the bottom of your understanding then it’s time to throw it away and to start all over again.