Judgement

 People were discussing gossip the other day. I started analyzing the detrimental value of this malicious pastime. I could not see it as “information”. More like inquisitiveness and maligning people out of jealousy or spite or both.

We are self-proclaimed judges in society, maybe because judging is easier than thinking things through. And it is certainly not objective by any standards when our emotions manifest in running down someone.

There comes another human aberration to mind. And we have all been subjected to this, causing deliberately planned or thoughtless misunderstandings. Remember Chinese whisper, the game we played in school? At least that was innocent and invited a few laughs.

People have this habit of listening to conversations and then quoting lines from

these conversations WITHOUT giving the context within which they were spoken in the first place! In isolation, those lines could be interpreted very negatively. This causes terrible misunderstandings because people today are quick to personalize every statement. Especially if they don’t particularly like the person who speaks. There is no room for benefit of doubt. Such is the intensity of insecurity these days. Maybe even of very low self-esteem.

Instead of igniting fires of separation, would it not be better to bring people together, just with positive suggestions to all? We do tend to endorse negative viewpoints out of conviction sometimes. The wise however, do not do that. They allow things to be and for change to happen through experiences. A constant criticism and judgement does not give space to the other person to reflect. Also, a direct attack on anyone’s self-esteem is nothing short of cruelty.

As it is said, kindness is to support and strengthen people. Our role in life is meant to be salutary.

The truth is, we are all connected. And when we ignite sparks, some of those sparks burn us too.

And let us incorporate ourselves within our levels of consciousness to get the larger picture.

Surekha Kothari

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