Dissonance and Prejudice

Since the definition of Dissonance that has been proposed here entails that it is constituted by a contrast, it always involves at least two components.  Instances of common usages of the term that seem to denote simple phenomena, i. e. in which Dissonance is a one-place property, are no exceptions--they are all elliptical characterizations, in which a second component is implicitly involved.  In some of those usages, 'X is dissonant' actually means 'X is more dissonant than some Y'.  But, in other cases, the more significant ones, the second component is a pre-given term that is so pervasive that it eludes recognition.  Thus, as an analogous example, '12-tone' is often classified as 'atonal', simply because 'tonal' is prevalently accepted as equivalent to '7-tone'.  Such instances often express a cultural prejudice, in which a contingent norm is taken as an absolute principle.  Likewise, 'X is dissonant' often means 'In the context, X is unfamiliar', a characterization that abstracts from the internal structure of X, supplants a symmetrical relation, i. e. Difference, with an asymmetrical one, i. e. Familiarity, and then equates one of the terms of the latter with a presumed one-place property, 'dissonance'.