The reason that I started this blog was to share what little information I had, learn from others, and build a community of system administrators who were interested in improving themselves and their peers.

It was for identical reasons that I joined the League of Professional System Administrators. It is very important to me that I contribute, in some way, to the betterment of our profession, and I’ve tried to do just that in every effort on this blog, as a member of LOPSA, and in my interactions with sysadmins of all types.

The way that I’ve found that seems to work best for me in understanding other people, and having them understand me, is to put myself in their place, and consider the situation from their perspective. Doing this requires humility, because it supposes that my way may not be the best or only way. This is difficult, because I have an ego and admitting I may not be right requires swallowing my pride. But I do it, because to work together for mutual improvement, it’s necessary to maintain an open mind.

Not everyone makes this effort, however. There is, and probably always will be, a minority of people who are xenophobic. That is, they are afraid of things and ideas that are different from theirs. As I was explaining to someone on twitter earlier, this xenophobia manifests itself in a complete antipathy toward methods and opinions which differ from their own. You’ve seen it. We’ve all seen it. You see it whenever someone decides an idea is wrong because it belongs to someone else, and if you challenge that stance, the person attacks you.

Let me be crystal clear. This condition is harmful. It’s harmful to the administrator who holds it, and to all of the systems that they deal with. Someone blindly refusing to implement the right solution because they’re prejudiced and superstitious is like a parent who refuses to inoculate their child. The solution doesn’t get applied because of irrational fear and mistrust.

This xenophobia, if left unchecked, advances to elitism. Let me say it again. Elitism is really just an advanced stage of xenophobia. Not only is your solution right, your solution is the best. In fact, anyone who doesn’t use your solution is inferior, obviously, and deserves derision, or at best, sympathy. You’re using $X? Oh, I’m sorry…

Elitism is what happens when your opinions are not only held for a long period of time, but encouraged by the people around you. If there aren’t dissenting voices, then obviously you’re not doing anything wrong, right? These kinds of questions fade away eventually into the assumption of correctness. By default, I’m right unless proven wrong. Younger members of the community see elders take these airs, but they mistake it for competency, which eventually produces more elders who feel the same wrong sense of entitlement, the same biases, the same assumptions, and the same elitism.

It’s very fortunate that not all, or even most of the community isn’t like this. In fact, even the ones who are aren’t usually this bad. As with all humans, we’re not black or white, we’re shades of grey. Even better, because we’re humans, eventually we can change, improve ourselves, and get over these petty biases which hold us back and weaken our communities.

I urge you. Take this as a charge to evaluate yourself for your biases, your own little pockets of xenophobia. They’re there, trust me. I have them too. Examine them, and make yourself aware of them, and then when you recognize the urge to respond with them, just stop and critically evaluate your position. You may be right, but it’s possible you’re wrong too. None of us will probably ever get rid of them entirely, but each one we eradicate will stop us from making the wrong decision at one point or another, or stop us from needlessly tearing down relationships that we worked so hard to build.

Take a moment to dig in deep and think of a couple biases you have, and that you should get rid of. It takes courage to admit that you have them, but it’s worth it, and by sharing it, you are forced to admit it, which will make it easier to get rid of.