Judging is an inherent part of our lives, almost second nature. Every day, we constantly evaluate our surroundings and make choices: deciding on the most nourishing meal, selecting the optimal time for exercise, pondering over the best way to raise children, or choosing the most suitable career path. However, the mechanisms behind our judgments are complex and often go unexamined. Are these evaluations strictly driven by logic, or are they influenced by something more intangible, something that eludes the realm of corporeality?
From a young age, we are primed to form judgments. We are taught to regard certain behaviors as base, undesirable. Our worth and intelligence are gauged, tagged, and, sometimes, compared. This conditioning becomes so deeply entrenched that we often harbor preconceived notions as adults, stubbornly refusing to alter them in the face of contrasting evidence.
Our judgmental tendencies pervade every aspect of our lives. We appraise people based on their clothing, their chosen professions, even their tastes in music and cuisine. Accents, appearances, ideas – nothing is immune to our critical gaze. Ideas, particularly those that challenge established norms, often receive our most disdainful scrutiny.
However, there comes a moment of self-awareness when we are on the cusp of passing a judgment and we halt, realizing the arbitrary nature of our viewpoints. All sports, decisions, ideas – their worth is not absolute but subjective. There is no concrete need to consider one way as right and another as wrong, a belief that only induces stress and discord.
Interestingly, we are raised to be vigilant, to stay aware of our surroundings and ongoing events. The inability to observe and judge is seen as a weakness, a barrier to forming opinions or expressing irritation.
Judgment stems from our conviction that our perception of reality is accurate, that there exists a universally correct way of living. Observing people engrossed in their smartphones, swiping aimlessly, we might hastily deem their actions pointless or wasteful. But, in reality, the intrinsic worth of an activity is subjective. Just because we perceive a particular hobby as noble or worthwhile doesn’t necessarily make it universally so.
We assign value to our interests, sometimes disproportionately. We may attribute more value to our favorite sport than to others, forgetting that the rules governing it are arbitrary and its enjoyment is a personal experience.
Even our reactions to nature bear the mark of our judgmental attitudes. Some of us choose to harbor resentment towards uncontrollable elements like weather. Others manifest frustration physically, lashing out at inanimate objects. Yet, the truth remains that the weather simply exists, indifferent to our emotions, and inanimate objects are incapable of retaliation.
In essence, judgment is an integral part of our consciousness, influencing our decisions, perspectives, and interactions. It is a complex mechanism, built on logic, emotions, and deeply embedded societal conditioning, serving as a constant reminder of our interpretation of reality and its subjective nature.