Introduction.
Judgement, it's a fact of life. Society is incredibly judgemental, and it seems to be getting worse. Often judgement is made from a short term view, with no thought to the long term consequences. In other cases a snap judgement is made as a knee jerk reaction, seemingly with with no thought, simply for PR value. People are often judged harshly on the shallowest values, especially people in the public eye. The standards public figures get judged by are at times barely rational.
Trial by Tabloid.
In the UK the tabloids are quick to dish out judgement, it's a trial by media. Take the Michael Jackson trial, regardless of what the reader may think of the man himself, by the time a considered judgement came through, the global media had ruined almost any hope he had of a fair trial. What we got was a media circus, in my view American justice took a blow that day.
Other celebs don't get off easily, gossip magazines are on every magazine shelf, quick judgements based on shallow, impermanent values. No wonder celebrities have complexes. Then a politician is caught with his pants down, or smoked pot, or is gay, and the judgements start. Not by any rational values, but by some odd set of values from the Twilight Zone. Newsflash: politicians are human, they screw up, who cares if he smoked pot at college, can he do the job or not?
Thanks to media coverage the learned value of Muslim is now Terrorist, but hang on, suppose it's wrong? Open your mind, do you honestly think that the average Muslim family man really agrees with the extremists? That an average Muslim mother really wants her son to die? Do you think that left to his own devices the average Muslim kid would really want to blow himself up? Of course not! But these inaccurate values are being used by many as the basis for judging people and the results are awful.
From bad to worse.
When we rushed to in Afghanistan as part of a knee-jerk reaction in the war on terror, how much hurt, how much innocent blood was (and is being) spilt? 9-11 was considered an act of war by the pre-learned values of the time, but we weren't fighting a conventional enemy, these terrorists were civilians fighting for a cause, not professional soldiers fighting for a country. How do you define victory? They said we'd won, but if we have then why are the Taleban still around and still fighting? Why are areas of Afghanistan still under Taleban control? It seems that the way we define victory isn't up to the job in this situation. Our learned values let us down, our experience didn't prepare us, things changed and our rigid cleaving to old values caught us unawares.
A great example is the way the sudden rise of sharing music over the Internet caught the record industry by surprise. They keep trying to cling to their known values, play to their experience, but it's not really working. Now we have the sight of the record companies taking legal action against children and old ladies, prosecuting the very people they should be selling their product to. Whereas Apple, who kept an open mind and went with the flow of the online music revolution have done tremendously well.
Religious extremism is all about judgementalism, it's difficult to see how an open mind could be extremist. It comes back to learned values and not questioning them, or more likely, not being allowed to. These extreme values are inflexible, they can't change, how can they be a sure bet for choosing anything other than a stagnant future? At least religious moderates can be open their judgements can be made with a more open mind.
Some companies also make snap rushed decisions, anyone who holds down a job in a reasonably sized organisation can tell stories of rushed judgements, knee jerk reactions from managers who try to be decisive but are so far out of their depth they need a life jacket. Do they ask for advice beforehand, take the time to get it right? Of course not, I've seen it in the past and so I suspect have you.
Our enviromental problems stem from a judgement problem, a lack of ability or willingness to look at the bigger picture. You just see the fumes and waste leaving the factory, but don't consider the effect on the environment. If early industrialists had taken the time to think outside the box before judging that these things were safe, we might not be having the problems we are right now.
Our problem with judgement is compounded by a massive lack of compassion in making judgements, the wraithing process is evident in so many things. The tabloids are the worst, with people picked apart publicly for entertainment. The suffering caused is ignored as it's just a job. The worst is that if you're not careful, you can find yourself being wraithed by proxy. Consider the poor moral judgement of the capitalist system, there is nothing that prevents a sentient being entering the system as a commodity. Anyone remember the slave trade heck it still happens today! Only last year a brothel was busted in Birmingham that was using illegally trafficked women from Eastern Europe.
Don't shoot the messenger!
But is the way we generally make judgements entirely a bad thing? Well, I can argue a counter case. Snap judgements are needed for quick decision making, and that sort of thing was good when we were living in caves. Let's face when they got the hint of danger, early humans didn't have time to sit and think, they had to get in gear, and quick! Today we sometimes have to deal with a situation that arises unexpectedly, or at the last minute, we can use the ability to judge quickly on pre-learned values or from experience to our advantage.
But, when the situation has hidden depths, when what people are saying (learned values) aren't entirely accurate, when prior experience doesn't quite prepare you, what then?
So, where does Taoism fit in?
Well, the Tao Te Ching advises us not to be too judgemental. We must try to keep on open mind. Indeed the whole book is relatively non-judgemental in that it never explicitly prohibits anything. It may, indeed advise against things, but the advice is never binding. Lao Tzu explains what he needs to, including the consequences and then leaves the reader to ponder what's been said. If you ignore the advice, you accept the consequences, that's your call.
Lao Tzu was a realist, he knew change happens when you least expect it. Better then to be less judgemental and rigid, more open minded and flexible. The long view is better, we should ideally try to make judgements in light of the bigger picture, try and wait till we know enough to make a reliable decision.
The Tao Te Ching advocates acting, and therefore judging, from compassion. Our thoughts shape our actions and thereby our world. But if there's no compassion, and there are ulterior motives behind everything, how can we ever know harmony with, or trust the world?
The principle of the Uncarved Block comes in here as well, don't let your mind be hemmed in, don't let someone carve the block for you and limit your view of your choices, especially yourself! The current US Administration could do with taking this advice on it's environmental policies!
In short, Judgementalism's a tool, a useful one to be sure. But one that we reach for in too much haste and is too often misused. It's amazing, with all that goes on in the modern world, and all the complexity people want us to see, that the best way to judge is still the simplest. With patience, compassion, an open mind and not too often.
March 2005