Classifications and Labels

Classifying, do they make our lives easier?

Dad, Mum. Man and woman. Boy and girl. Even a 2-year-old classifies.

An old car. A new car. An expensive car. Dad's car. A mercedes. Simple descriptions categorize the simplest of things.

The many departments in supermarkets and hypermarkets make shopping a breeze.

Weather forecasts: sunny, rainy, cloudy in the morning and thunderstorms expected in the evening...

Reading an article on the existence of hermaphrodites, we eventually gather that near to none of our classifications are exclusively distinctive.

What about labelling?

Food labels warn us of the calories contained in a bottle of your favourite drink or a serving of your favourite food.

Labelling a heartbreaker - Jerk. An irritating woman who does all the wrong things - Bitch. They encompass a definition so wide, it will be difficult to replace them with other words.

Christians, catholics, protestants, pentecostals, baptists, evangelists, Jehovah's witnesses..etc. Do we worship the same God?

Government departments in Malaysia, despite their less-than-desired efficiency and attitude, divide their jobs meticulously. To get your matters remedied, you would probably have to run through several departments. That is if you were lucky enough to find the right one. And don't even get me started on the 'race' column that we are always asked to fill in (Oh Malaysia, truly Asia!).

We all tend to classify because it makes things so much easier. Furthermore, we love picking on the differences between things and people. I classify a lot too. But sometimes it gets too much and goes too far.

Racial segregation and discrimination. Outrage among the disadvantaged. All of these, to a certain extent, result from classifying and labelling.

But how on earth can we stop doing something that we've been doing since like, the dawn of mankind? What will happen to a world without classifications and labels? How do we know if it gets far-fetched and implausible?

How is it possible that we can classify the act of classifying?