|
|
(Lazarsfeld et al. 1948). As cross-pressures are the result of horizontal as well as vertical social mobility, and as mobility increases as the consequence of modernisation and postmodernisation, the impact of cross-pressures will be felt more and more.
This is related to the breakup of simple prejudices. Mobile societies tend to marginalise simplistic perceptions of the world. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, most of the people in Western societies no longer believe in conspiracy stories like that of the “Elders of Zion”. People less and less believe that women are inferior to men. “Race” is losing its ability to define the proper social place of anybody. Prejudices defining “good” and “bad” in black and white are in decline due to the increasing importance of the colour grey. The grey tones that are gaining ground in societies are the consequence of mobility.
That does not mean that prejudices are losing their defining power. On the contrary, they are even more important because they become more sophisticated. Due to their increasing complexity, prejudices are becoming less and less visible. As the example of the “new anti-Semitism” demonstrates, in Western societies, it has become almost impossible, unacceptable, and unthinkable to “hate Jews”. The “new” anti-Semite is not exactly Philosemitic; he or she not only claims to have Jewish friends (and perhaps even some Jewish relatives), but also insists on measuring Jews by using benchmarks developed for Jews only and the Jewish state in particular (Harrington 2006). The “new” anti-Semite is morally outraged about human-rights violations by Jews; he or she is much less inclined to feel this kind of outrage when human rights are violated by non-Jews. The “new” anti-Semite eagerly denies being anti-Semitic and tends to believe this claim. Open hatred of Jews does happen—but more and more in non-Western societies, less and less in Western societies.
Many prejudices have gone into hiding. They cannot be as easily singled out as in the past. This is one of the reasons why the study of prejudices is more important than ever. It is not sufficient just to preach the gospel of liberating people from the dark times of a prejudiced society and to enlighten them by arguing how morally negative prejudices are. As people affected by prejudice do not want to be “caught”