My prejudices

Since I teach books like To Kill a Mockingbird and Night and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I often have students ask me about my personal prejudices. I have two answers, and I use one or the other depending upon my frame of mind at the time: stupid people and rude people. By stupid I mean people who do not think--not people who cannot think or people who have trouble thinking; I mean people who choose not to think. And so, probably, the two groups I list are more or less the same. Being rude is a kind of not thinking, with a large dose of not feeling thrown in for good measure.
I could list all kinds of rude and/or stupid acts, ad nauseum, but we all know the kinds of things I mean: driving too fast in a residential zone (Ah, if we were only all made of the same stuff as Garp); cutting in front of older people at the grocery; making crude comments about (take your pick) females, gays, ethnic groups, the elderly, the young, people from the South or the North or the Midwest or Canada; using inappropriate language in public.
Basically, it all comes down to being selfish. All rude and stupid behavior has its origin in caring more about oneself than about anyone else. I talk with my freshmen about archetypes in literature, and I point out that the biggest difference between the hero and the villain is that the former is selfless while the latter is selfish. We live in a culture of villains. Not everyone, of course. You and I are okay. We know better, right? We always think of others first. So I guess it's easy to see why people act the way they do--it's easier. Doesn't make it easier to accept, but what can we do?
Maybe we can try a little harder. Maybe if we think, then it would rub off on someone and they might start thinking. Scary concept, no?
Couldn't hurt.