A Closer Look at Judgmentalism

Today we’ll be taking a closer look at  judgmentalism *.

Judgmentalism has been all over the place lately, at least in my sphere of news, internet, and social media. It’s even cropped up in person as I watch friends being judged for how they dress, how they look, and how they pay for their food. And too be honest, being judgmental seems to be a very human trait. We all make judgments about, well, nearly everything. All. The. Time. I assume this was in part a survival tactic way back in time, and it eventually grew into a means of figuring out not just our place in the world, but also where everything around us fit in, lest we behave inappropriately towards those who could perhaps make our lives rather uncomfortable. So, let us just get that out of the way upfront – We are, all of us, judgmental creatures. And yes, I do mean all of us. Even you.

Whew, that felt good to acknowledge, don’t you think? Drag it out in the open where we can talk about it like civilized, intelligent adults. Because if not exposed to the light of day and some fresh air, our ability, nah, our desire, to judge, can fester, becoming a knee jerk reaction to anything we disagree with, don’t understand, or is different from how we look, act, or do things.

I’m going to use one of John Beckett’s favorite words here: discernment. When trying to discern if you are being wrongly judgmental, or are being too judgmental, take a step back and ask yourself why you might be reacting so strongly to whatever it is. Currently going around the Patheos Pagan blogosphere are posts on a certain column in the UK’s Independent, so let’s use that as an example. The bulk of the column itself is mainly fluff, written in jest by a woman who wasn’t taking it all seriously. And honestly, I have no problem with her comical take on it. Similar things have been done with parts of other religious practices. Seeing her trying to hard to show that she wasn’t taking it seriously was rather entertaining.

Where Ms. Radford strayed was in the last few paragraphs, where she let her personal opinion get the better of her and pointedly judged not just witches and pagans, but really anyone with a spiritual practice, by basically saying we were wasting our energy and should just learn to deal with, and accept, the real world like every other rational person. In other words, she became overly judgmental by declaring everyone who was spiritual and religious as being essentially delusion. The fault was in not knowing any of us, let alone knowing why we all believe the way we do. And for that, not just pagans, but anyone with a spiritual belief should have called her out. I personally don’t care what Ms. Radford does or doesn’t believe, if she doesn’t expect me to hop on board with her.

Of course, many Pagans and Witches were all over this article, but I’ve honestly seen very little aimed at those last paragraphs. They were mainly upset by her pathetic lack of commitment to actually trying the exercises she describes in her column. I can also understand their feelings, but I’ll wager many of them simply didn’t get the tone of the piece. It was meant to be satire…. or at least an attempt at satire. I’m fairly certain she missed the mark on how humorous her article was, since I found myself more chuckling at her than with her.

I’m not saying the Patheos Pagan bloggers where heaping on her, because I honestly haven’t read every blog post about it, but the ones I have read seem to be either talking about the same topic I am or are suggesting how she could have perhaps done things seriously and gotten something out of the week other than just a snarky article. But there are many out there who are being just as overly judgmental as she was in her final paragraphs. She was disrespectful to the things they practice and by gosh, they’re not going to stand for it! Judgmentalism* all around!

This seems to be part of a growing concern of mine that folks are becoming quicker and quicker to judge things they personally disagree with or do not like. A Facebook friend, who is normally a very accepting person, went on a mini rant a couple of weeks ago because the couple behind her at the grocery checkout used their EBT/SNAP (food stamps) card to by a couple of energy drinks. Her tax money shouldn’t be paying for that. What she might not have know was that those energy drinks keep them going when their kids get home from school or give them the mental focus to get through their day. I’ve another friend on EBT/SNAP who needs her energy drinks to do just that while she busts her backside making ends meet within the gig economy. I’ve seen well-dressed folks pay for groceries at Dollar Tree with their EBT/SNAP as well. And I’ve seen parents figure out how to save enough on their cards to buy a ton of junk – candy and chip, etc.… for a child’s birthday party so they can have a celebration.

So, the next time you find yourself judging a person, or a situation, based on the surface of it, take a moment and ask yourself why you’re reacting the way you are? Is it because their condition of poverty makes you uncomfortable? Or maybe you’re being quick to judge them as lazy because they’re poor? (Trust me, I know very few poor people who are actually lazy!) Does that Muslim woman make you uncomfortable because you can’t imagine anyone wanting to cover themselves up like that? Is the person seeming to make fun of practices you believe in really trying to be hurtful, or just get the link clicks? And to Ceri Radford, do you really think we’re all just wasting our time trying to change the world with our magic, our prayers, or whatever? Or does all of our “mumbo-jumbo” just make you too uncomfortable to even contemplate it?

Bottom line for us all – if you don’t understand something and judge because of it, take a moment and ask yourself why.

Of course, I’m just chiming in with my own judgmental two cents, but it’s something to think about.

Regards,

Laurel

*Excellent article on the fine line opinion columnists walk between passing judgement and being judgemental. It’s a bit dated (Senator Kennedy’s funeral), but is a nice discussion on the subject.)