THE SUPERIORITY TRAP

 

It is common to think that one’s way of doing things is the right way and therefore the superior way, but it is important to acknowledge that there are other ways of thinking and behaving that are equally “right” in other parts of the world. Those who think their way is the only “right” way are caught in the Superiority Trap.
There is a term for the inability to accept that there are different and equally functional rules outside of one’s own cultural bias; anthropologists and sociologists call this ethnocentrism. Social rules, by definition, are not scientific truths; they are always arbitrary, regardless of their functionality, and they function only because they are relevant to the culture from which they originated.
The rules you bring with you to another land may be perfectly functional where you came from, but most likely lack meaning and context where you have ended up. When you open yourself up to another culture, you come to realize that the rules of a specific society do not need to define you: you are free to discover new places, and choose the rules that contribute to your self-definition.