Judgementalism

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(Or why I know better than you about. Well, you!)?

By: Bam Steele?

Although I am certain I could easily find another term that might fit this article more closely, for my purpose, I am asserting that it is the best and at the very least it very well should be! If it is not then I will make it one here, now as now is when it seems it is at a fever pitch in terms of usage in our daily lives, as well as in terms of abuse or over usage! Today's individuals seem to have no problem passing judgement on his or her fellow man. I see and more importantly hear it all the time and everywhere. We love to not only inject ourselves into others' lives, with their problems and issues, but we can't stop there we must also then provide a solution to their problems that we have, usually without consent, injected ourselves in to. Maybe you feel you have insight or knowledge about their specific problem that you could solve that someone may be experiencing. You may very well have the solution to the problems others may have, but should you intercede without someone asking you for that help? The short answer is no, you should not offer advice or give unsolicited solutions to another adult! By doing so you effectively remove a tool that person definitely need to solve not only this current problem, but you run the risk of taking away the ability of someone to problem solve on their own, it's called deductive reasoning and it is a very important tool every hard working, normal, critically thinking individual needs, it's the ability to resolve complex, often very important issues we face, sometimes daily. By putting ourselves into the thinking person's thought processes we run the risk of removing his or her own ability to do that for themselves, stunting the overall growth of one's ability to do that for themselves, hurting them far more deeply than you may be actually helping them. If someone explicitly asks for your advice or help and you can provide said assistance by all means assist them, but you never want to take from one's repertoire the very tools the experiences of our youth and all other valid experiences to date as well as our overall ability to think for ourselves away from them. Just as I know that whatever issue a person may have can only be solved if that person wishes to solve those issues, it won't matter what someone else may think even if their solution is the best solution! That is the crux of my argument against this trend of judgementalism, because rarely will someone just give an opinion and leave it at that, they usually must also prove their opinion right and all other competing solutions wrong and that is where the judgement comes into play. Most people feel they must prove their point of view as the correct point of view and one of the most used as well as the most insidious is to pass judgement, not for their point of view but against all other points of view, thereby proving theirs the correct one! People so fear to be wrong they will then vehemently try to show everyone else to be wrong leaving theirs the only option, not only the right one by default but also the only one not put through the rigors of their close examination they used on the other competing opinions. The truth is not so easily defeated as this and therefore will usually be shown eventually through a more fair, often unbiased reflection of the problem as well as time and distance away from the opinion and person giving said opinion that had earlier so fervently been in judgement of all others! We are in fact given very effective ways of dealing with the problems of the modern age as well as age-old problems by our very own physiology! We may also benefit from the experiences and insight of others if given in such a way that allows one to self-help themselves by use of deductive reasoning, critical thinking, empathy and most of all reflection, self-reflection through the age-old art of meditation. A healthy dose of daily meditation can usually provide one with the opportunity to have the ability to self-reflect and clinical studies have shown this to be the case without doubt, eons of meditative thinkers have also stated this fact! So, the next time anyone feels the need to inject themselves into someone else's problems unsolicited and proceed to try to prove their point or methods through the judgement of all others, first take a good hard look in the mirror and ask this one simple question- do I want to judge with the option of myself being judged in the process. I think most of us would say that they would not.?