Passing Judgement
As seen on www.towtalkwithgm.com/blog
The one question I ask people in today’s society, why are we so quick to judge other people without knowing who they really are? I am guilty of it myself on some levels of my day. We, as a society, are very judgmental about what others have, what they do in their lives, and how they act during the day. The sad truth is that we, as a society, are passing mostly negative judgement against an individual that we don’t even know. We may see them around the neighborhood, see them around work, see them in a restaurant or coffee shop. But the reality is, we do NOT know that person, or the struggles that they are actually going through.
Let’s look at a few things that I know society passes judgement on, that we really shouldn’t. Take for instance a man sitting on the street, dressed in old dirt covered clothes, shoes barely holding together, appears to be unbathed, hair a mess, unshaven, and smells funky. As a society we look at this person and start passing judgement that they are mentally unstable, or they are too lazy to find a job. These are the two most common things that I have heard and even thought myself a time or two. But do you know WHY that person is in the situation that they are in? Do you know WHY that person is not able to get a job?
In our busy lives, we are so self-centered and focused on what we deem as a problem, that we forget that other people have problems in their lives too. That person sitting on the street that society is passing judgment on once had similar problems as the rest of us. Trying to make a living, support his family, fight for his country in the military, whatever the case may be. What you do NOT know about that person is he caught his spouse cheating on him while he was at work every day and fell into a deep depression and lost everything. Losing everything, made his depression worse, and now he does not have the means to get any type of assistance for the mental breakdown that he had. In turn, he has no address, therefore he can not get a job. So, he is stuck in a rut that society has created, and he has no way of getting out.
Another scenario we see a lot is another homeless person sitting on the street or roaming around town. We start passing judgment on this individual again, not knowing their true story. What we do not know about this person is that he was once a decorated member of our armed forces, completing multiple tours of duty, earning multiple military combat awards, all while supporting a family back in the states. When he finally got to come home, he decided that he was going to move to the civilian life and not re-enlist in the military. His mental state becomes progressively worse, PTSD is causing flashbacks to fire fights that he was in, and he is deemed mentally unstable by society.
Because of his pride, he refuses to get any assistance for his mental issues he is going through. His wife takes the kids and leaves, he loses his job due to his depression from losing his family, and now he is homeless. He has no address due to losing his house, therefore most companies will not hire him even though he is well qualified. This causes a deeper depression to set and starts changing his frame of mind to a very negative outlook. Then after a period of be told no, he just gives up and stops trying.
You see, there are a lot of circumstances behind everyone’s life and the way they are living. We, as a society, need to stop passing judgment so quickly and start taking a little time to pay attention to our surroundings. There are so many good people that are in a bad place because of circumstances that society created. If society would just do something to help these individuals have an address to be able to put on an application, a place to take a shower and clean up. We could help change the lives of so many people that we don’t even know. There are those people that are homeless due to their own ignorant decisions and circumstances that they brought upon themselves. Those people are just looking for handouts and society to take care of them, but we do NOT take the time to figure out their stories. We just pass judgement as we walk or drive by them on the street.
Society is even bad about passing judgment on people that don’t look the way that we think they should look. A child in school is getting bullied because of the way he dresses, and that their hair isn’t clean every day. The teacher is constantly degrading this student because they are trying to hide from their classmates due to the bullying. What the other kids and teacher do not know is that this child is going home at night and having to care for an alcoholic parent. This child is putting it on their shoulders to make sure their parent eats, and goes to bed on time, and gets up in the morning to go to work. This child is being forced by the parent to grow up and take on these responsibilities at way too young of an age.
Yet again, another scenario of not knowing the entire story before society starts passing judgment on another person. As a society we will pass judgment on skin color, what part of town a person lives in, what type of car a person drives, how a person dresses, and so on. The list of judgments that we, as a society, pass on others is never ending.
WE NEED TO STOP JUDGING. It is not our place to judge others based on our personal assumptions about that individual. A Tik Tok creator that I watch has coined the phrase “Do Better”. I firmly believe that we, as a society, need to take this man’s advice. We ALL need to do better on a daily basis. Stop passing judgment if you don’t know, stop being mean to other just because they do not live up to your standards. Take a few minutes to learn about a person and their situation. You may be surprised to find out that person you have been calling crazy is actually an out of work engineer or a combat veteran that society has cast aside.
