Judgment day aka Judgmenation

It is human nature to judge, we do it all the time. Right now you’re judging this article, aren’t you? See? But, let’s say there are ‘good’ judgments that you do every day. Has the milk gone bad or is that piece of salami in the back of the fridge still edible, that wouldn’t in possible way hurt anyone or cause some kind of distress. However, ‘bad’ judgments doesn’t mean you made a bad judgment. It is a trait of really shallow person, I do mean shallow, like maybe a finger deep or so. Anyway, passing judgment on someone because they don’t fit the “social norm” is just madness.

I love cartoons, I grew up with cartoons and there is no way anyone can tell me that it is socially unacceptable to watch cartoons as an adult. You can’t tell me what to do! I can’t hear you, LALALALA! Seriously, who comes up with these norms? Is there an institute for socially dull and acceptable behavior? I bet they look at things, and everything that is fun must be abolished and labeled as childish and immature. I’ll play with my LEGOs, I will color outside the lines and I will not go to bed at 9 in the evening! You can’t make me.

If you dress differently you are already on the right track to be branded as an outcast and judged by the others. God forbid you have a new, interesting colorful hairstyle, I mean that is just social suicide. The way you talk and what you say can also draw attention and unwanted judgmental eyes. ‘We want you to be more creative but do it the way we want it to be done, don’t be different, be unique.’ Isn’t that a bit paradoxical? How am I supposed to widen my horizons if there is not horizon? And by the way, who gave you rights to judge me? There are only two people in this world that can judge me, and make me do all sorts of other stuff as well, my parents.

Of course there are some social norms we all have to follow, it’s part of being civilized, cough cough. Nevertheless, there are too many biased judgments, uncalled misjudgments to be more exact. If someone is of a different religion they must be a heretic, if someone reads must be a nerd and so on. Again, who comes up with this? We all have similar thoughts though, but if given time and rational thinking you can overcome this. Sure, I have the urge to think that because you listen to folk music you must be slightly below the average IQ, BUT, and I can’t emphasize this enough, BUT, this means nothing. I don’t know you, and just because we have different tastes in something has nothing to do with your beliefs, behavior and affiliation. Furthermore, I shouldn’t judge you based on these superficial attributes.

Unfortunately though, there are more shallow-narrow-minded people and they do what they do best, scrutinize, envy and ultimately judge you solely on their biased beliefs. There is no left, the Sun is not a star. They know what they know and that is the ultimate truth, you don’t agree? Bring the torches and pitchforks.

How can we deal with this? Honestly, the best answer would be to take an encyclopedia and just beat some sense into them, literally. Unfortunately you can’t do much besides that. If ignorance is bliss, why are there bitter and envious people in such copious numbers? The worst part is, they will never compromise and they usually make it happen their way, not because they are better but because you get so tired trying to make sense out of their blundering stupidity.

Never judge a book by its cover, people have forgotten this. We have become vain in the pursuit of “happiness”.

By Dejan Vicai