Two Types of People | Teen Ink

Two Types of People

September 10, 2010
By arsparfven BRONZE, Swansea, Massachusetts
arsparfven BRONZE, Swansea, Massachusetts
4 articles 0 photos 0 comments

There are two types of people in the world, those who divide people into types and those who don't.

Those who feel the need to divide people into types are generalizers or attention seekers. This division is either an attempt to be humorous or support of a belief or prejudice held by the generalizer. If it is an attempt to be humorous, the attention seeker is probably making a statement such as, “there are three types of people in the world, those who can count and those who can't,” and are about to be laughed at merely for his lack of creativity. Such a joke is almost guaranteed to have been repeated hundreds of times on the internet, and to be on five different novelty t-shirts.

If the division is being used to back a belief or prejudice, the generalizer is attempting to use a common saying to convey his distaste for “types” that disagree with his beliefs. For example, a mustard lover may say, “There are two types of people in the world, those who like mustard and those who don't,” and make it noticed that those who don't are not the correct “type” of people. This may be directed at a particular friend, or it may be a general statement to the public. In either case, the generalization has probably been recognized by many people before. The only positive response to such a generalization is an agreement from a like-minded enthusiast or an extremely dull, gullible friend.

Exceptions to any of the above descriptions are very few and result from the imaginative and clever, or the simple and oblivious. The clever may think up something original, sarcastic, mocking, or truly humorous. The simple are more likely to say something along the lines of “there are only two types of people in the world, boys and girls,” which can be humorous because it isn't meant to be a joke. Unless one is truly bright or truly dumb, generalizations are best left to t-shirt creators and stand-up comedians.

Those who do not divide others into types are what many call “normal people.” The Oxford Dictionary defines normal as conforming to a standard, so this implies that not dividing people into types is a standard. By that standard, novelty t-shirt creators, stand-up comedians, and the creator of the blog, “There are Two Types of People in the World” should be social outcasts, and in all probability they became social outcasts long before they began their venture into generalizations.

The rest of the masses are unique people who live unique lives connected only by a small shred of common sense that keeps them from actively using the “two types of people” generalization. These people are no better off than the generalizers mentioned earlier, however. The masses are generally stuck in the middle class, quite incapable of very intelligent thought, and have learned their life values from Spongebob Squarepants.

There are two types of people in the world, those who divide people into types and those who don't. Both are hopeless.


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