It seems that as human beings we face a dilemma about judgements and judging. Most of us have been on both sides of the fence. Sometimes we judge others on our own thoughts and ideas or those of the collective mentality of the group we belong too.
Most of us have also been on the side of things where we have been judged by an individual or worse, an individual who identifies with a group that has it’s own value judgements. Of course, virtually all of us have also been judged by one or more groups countless times as well. Whether we care to admit it or not, it is true. And as long as we remain human this sort of thing is going to continue to be part of the fabric of our lives.
But we can’t really use the word value, because the criteria changes and varies so much that there is no standard. So if a person or group judges another on certain criteria, who can say that person or group is right?
This is why groups can become so powerful, they have the conviction of many individuals. The leader of the group is usually the one who shapes or heavily influences how the collective judges other individuals and even other groups.
What a mess. When the criteria is not of a noble or high nature, many problems arise. The more narrow minded the criteria used to judge others, the worse the problems that arise from it are.
There are so many such narrow criteria that abound today that it restricts and binds us, not only as individuals but as a society.
It seems that no one is free of this trap. Nor does there seem to be much of a way to avoid these situations and problems. Only individual transcendence is useful. And then, only to the individual. It does little to change a group’s perspective nor that of other individuals, except maybe to serve as an example to those who are open minded enough to notice it.
This phenomenon is often referred to as discrimination. These potentially harmful judgements from groups or individuals can take many, many forms. For example, in some cases it might take the criteria of whether a person is ‘cool’ or not ‘cool’. When examined closely, such an imprecise term will generally be defined by the person of highest perceived value in a group, the leader.
The more arbitrary the leader’s criteria is, the more dangerous the situation becomes. In the worst case scenarios, it can lead to violence against others.
Persecution is an example of this. Falun Gong practitioners are brutally persecuted because the Chinese Communist Party fears, in a paranoid, irrational way, people who meditate and take as their own and perhaps higher standard – truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Perhaps the Chinese Communist Party fears this standard because it is opposite their own standard which is appears to be that anything is justified so long as the Chinese Communist Party can continue to rule China.
On a smaller scale, perhaps a child or older individual is ostracized by his classmates due to some arbitrary notion of who is cool and who is not.
In the case of society, one aspect is the judging of those who do harm to others in society. Criminals are separated and imprisoned. To insure the health of the society as a whole, this is understandable. So there are both useful ways to judge and harmful ways to judge. And just how do we know the difference?
Maybe we, as individuals, must take the responsibility upon ourselves to examine the criteria we use to judge others. If done en mass, it could have the potential to raise our entire society up to higher and more lofty levels of humanity and consciousness.
As a starting point, perhaps reading Zhuan Falun, written by Li, Hongzhi would prove useful to people. I think a person will find many more higher quality ideas there.
Perhaps in the future, we will evolve, and human beings may become something more than we are today. Let’s see if we can make it.
Sometimes it is painful to be judged by other individuals and groups. Instead of being brought down by such instances, let’s use these mini-tragedies to propel us to examine our own notions and judgements and actively eliminate any narrow minded, simplistic or damaging notions we have towards other individuals or groups.
A kinder, more broad minded, compassionate and honest society could emerge as a result. Spread these ideas to others. Let’s see if we can make a difference together.
David Snape writes for All Things Pondered:
https://allthingspondered.com He also writes for To Be Informed: https://tobeinformed.com
Article Source: https://allthingspondered.com
This is still in draft form.