“Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” is not advice I would give to anyone. But there is a lot of judgement-based advice that I would give. So I will. Right now. Prepare to be advised.
Do judge books by their cover. Judge people. Think about their appearance. Judge your surroundings. Think about everything you perceive. Don’t ignore things. Don’t assume you can’t come to valid conclusions. Don’t turn off your brain. People with their brains turned off are husks.
Judge. But remember, what happens next is essential. What do you do with the judgments you’ve made, the information you’ve gathered? (Of course, if the title you judge on their book cover is I'm Probably Gonna Murder Ya, yeah, better start running, but for the other cases...)
Don’t give up. Don’t give up on a person after only judging their initial outward appearance. Don’t assume you understand them completely from the beginning. That’s arrogance. That’s bad information gathering. That’s bad science. Widen your sample size. Keep looking. Keep judging. Let them show you a few dimensions of who they are. Judge those too.
So I guess the advice is, you can judge so long as you don't stop judging. Keep judging. Keep your mind open to each new dimension of the people and things that you encounter. Don't stop moving forward until either (1) you discover them to be harmful or so deplorable that they aren't worth your attention any longer, or (2) you don't, and you keep going, further up and further in, learning and expanding from what they offer you, on and on, judging each other.
Do judge books by their cover. Judge people. Think about their appearance. Judge your surroundings. Think about everything you perceive. Don’t ignore things. Don’t assume you can’t come to valid conclusions. Don’t turn off your brain. People with their brains turned off are husks.
Judge. But remember, what happens next is essential. What do you do with the judgments you’ve made, the information you’ve gathered? (Of course, if the title you judge on their book cover is I'm Probably Gonna Murder Ya, yeah, better start running, but for the other cases...)
Don’t give up. Don’t give up on a person after only judging their initial outward appearance. Don’t assume you understand them completely from the beginning. That’s arrogance. That’s bad information gathering. That’s bad science. Widen your sample size. Keep looking. Keep judging. Let them show you a few dimensions of who they are. Judge those too.
So I guess the advice is, you can judge so long as you don't stop judging. Keep judging. Keep your mind open to each new dimension of the people and things that you encounter. Don't stop moving forward until either (1) you discover them to be harmful or so deplorable that they aren't worth your attention any longer, or (2) you don't, and you keep going, further up and further in, learning and expanding from what they offer you, on and on, judging each other.
Just got around to reading this. It's an excellent point, because I don't think we can actually refrain from making judgments, but we can always make better judgments.
ReplyDeleteThere was a prof at our old college who insisted that using the word "is" was making a judgment, and if you wanted to stop judging, you'd have to stop using that word.
Delete