Don't Label Me

I hate labels. More specifically, I hate people looking at me and deciding what I can or can't do based on what they believe someone with that label can do.

Like it or not, though, labels are powerful, and we'd best acknowledge the benefits of getting them right and the drawbacks of getting them wrong.

The importance of labels
Either explicitly or implicitly, labels guide us. They give us directions. They help us make decisions. They keep us from making mistakes. They help us define our boundaries.

Boundaries are particularly useful, for they give us a clear picture of when one thing starts and another thing ends. They let us know where the edge of the cliff is so that we don't go over it. They tell us where our neighbor's nose is so we know where to stop our fist.

(And they let us know if it is our neighbor at all, or an enemy, so that we may know if our fist should keep swinging)

But what if the label is wrong?
If we are to govern our own affairs, both big and small, making the right decision depends on our being able to accurately reflect on the best possible information at the time and conduct ourselves according to  a certain moral framework that gives us the discernment to judge right from wrong to the best of our flawed ability.

But even though we don't always pick the best available choice (and we don't always see all the available choices), commercial and political transactions are uninterrupted when we believe unequivocally in the propriety of the labels, and when that trust is frequently validated by experience.

Not all consequences are this serious
If we find that we cannot trust the labels, we cannot adequately predict what will happen when we act according to whatever the label describes.

This can cause indecision. In critical circumstances, improper labeling can lead to a number of nightmare scenarios that endanger peoples' lives, up to and including nuclear fallout.

Labels are important. We all know it. Just ask the last person who took a bite of Raisin Bran after mistaking the egg nog for the milk. Or the person who got fired for missing a client meeting because a sign was not adequately visible from the road.

When labels fail us, usually we blame the person who could not interpret it accurately.

Maybe we could instead just make better labels. - Cam Beck