Pre-mature baldness

A good mate of mine, lets call him Pete, is prematurely bald- he is only in his mid-twenties, but he has already lost nearly all of his hair. Because of his appearance, he is discriminated against by his employer, the police, the customs and anyone else who does not like the look of him. I have travelled overseas a hundred times yet I have only ever been stopped on a couple of occasions- once when I was coming back from holiday with Pete. We were stopped and our luggage was searched and our passports were taken away and checked. I wonder why?

Pete was arrested recently because he claims (and I believe him) that the police picked on him. The court case was adjourned several times and eventually dismissed due to a lack of evidence. But for the months in between time, taxpayer’s money was wasted and the life of one young person was put on hold and stress levels were significantly increased, all because of discrimination because of his appearance. You see all these yobs racing their cars around and urinating anywhere they want- yet it is not these people who the police stop.

Jim works in the back office behind the scenes at his employers- because of his appearance. In ten years, he has been promoted once- and at times, he has been employed but without an actual role to perform. He is popular with his work mates and his customers- but he does not get taken seriously because of his appearance.

To be sure, Pete is not perfect- he has used drugs in the past- along with probably a majority of today’s youth. But he is a personable, friendly, loyal and intelligent person- a considerably under-deployed resource. He pays his taxes and has been working consistently all his life. Pete will walk through town and say a friendly and polite "Hello" to a large number of people- the irony is that he would so good in a front-office customer facing role. One day when I am successful enough, I will employ Pete myself- and not only as a bodyguard!

Pete has suffered and will continue to suffer because of a genetic feature beyond his control and the resulting societal prejudice and the ignorance and stupidity of too many enforcers with too much power over other individuals. In organized societies, a mere accident of birth, or schooling, or something else, can mean the difference between success and failure. Rather than letting all individuals succeed to the fullest of their ability, nanny states regulate "ugly" people and then pay them social security and other benefits when they are prevented from operating as ordinary people.

In the unorganized world, the only prejudice is talent- and certainly not appearance.

 

Author: Simon Buckingham

What do you think?

To make a comment to the author, send e-mail to simon@unorgan.com