Judgment

We have all felt the judgmental stares of another human being. Sometimes, this is over how we look or something we say or simply who we are. You want to try to say, "Wait" and explain the whole story, but you can't because they've already made up their mind. This is the judgment of human beings, rash and unfair.    

Everyone tries not to be judgmental. The most judgmental people in the world will tell you that they aren't judgmental at all. But they are. Almost everyone is judgmental, often without realizing it, myself included. It is part of what makes us who we are. We categorize people and then we box them away. Time and time again, we have tried to rail against this, saying things like, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Yet we rarely heed our own advice. It is only when we are confronted with our own mistake that we feel guilty about this.

Some of these judgments keep us safe away from people who would otherwise harm us. Our judgment better helps those like us. Yet most of the time, it only seeks to tear us apart, to divide us from our peers. That, to me, is a great tragedy. It is human nature, but it is still a tragedy.

Judgment, especially harsh judgment, is something that deeply hurts other people. It isolates them from others, makes them feel utterly humiliated. Dealing with this repeatedly can cause so many mental scars, especially if they are from those close to you. So many people are judged simply for who they are.

We can't really judge people, though, at least not accurately. There are so many things going on in everyone's life and we can never really know them. Given that, it's hard to judge them as people. Sure, we might be able to judge them for their individual actions, but not for them as a whole.

In our society, judgment is hard to escape. It is given out freely and encouraged. Yet perhaps if every day we try to keep track of the judgments we make, things might not be as they are.