Judgment Rendered

"Don't judge." We've all heard that admonishment at one point or another. Sometimes it's followed by "me", sometimes "him" or "her". The idea probably dates back to a time well before the Bible popularized the notion in a couple different forms ("Judge not lest ye be judged," and "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.") All of those commands rest on the same sentiment, one that sounds hollow and wrong no matter how it's phrased. Judgment can hurt. It reveals things about us that we would rather have unknown or unspoken. Therefore you should suppress the impulse within yourself that determines whether something is good or bad.

Who actually benefits from that logic? Through the no judgment commandment honest compliments and just reprimands are subsumed into a generic, anodyne ambivalence. People unconsciously doing something wrong won't be corrected. Those who merit praise are left out in the cold. The only ones who seem to benefit are those who know they are doing something wrong and want to pretend otherwise. Forestalling judgment indefinitely postpones a guilty person being forced to confront their guilt because of external pressure. That only leaves one further voice to silence -- the conscience of the anti-judge. Of course, you can't permanently prevent self-evaluation and even if you could it wouldn't alter the objective state of affairs. In that sense, squelching judgment does not actually benefit the anti-judge because doing something wrong is ultimately self-defeating.

In our culture today, there's a strong pressure not to judge. I love the NBC show The Office, but I'm always annoyed by the Goofus and Gallant comparison of Dwight and Jim. Dwight is unfailingly honest (well, most of the time) and judgmental and is painted as an annoying fool because of it. Jim, the innocuous everyday guy, avoids decisions and the responsibility inherent in speaking out until the dramatic peak of the episode when he's forced to do something. True, when you think about it, the happy endings always stem from Jim judging and acting on his judgments, but the stylistic anti-judging message remains. The Colbert Report operates in a similar manner. The audience laughts night after night at the farcical pundit who renders absolute judgments on everything from bears to terrorists. Today, judgment is associated with stodgy, uncool old men (probably Republicans) who can't just let everyone do their own thing. Never mind that there's a clear difference between speaking your mind and forcing other people to act on your opinions. If you want to find cultural references that recognize the value of judgment, you have to look back pretty far.

In The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov honestly believes and proselytizes the doctrine of anti-judgment. To Ivan, God can't exist because of human suffering and without God there can be no meaningful right or wrong. With Ivan lacking any standard of judgment, he meets the inevitable result of his anti-philosophy. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who is reading or wants to read the story, so I'll leave it to the imagination what that inevitable result is. Suffice to say Dostoevsky doesn't tend to let his characters get away with philosophical flaws.

Ivan's fate suggests a broader truth about judgment. It's an empirical, observable fact that we humans need the ability to tell right from wrong. On a biological level, we can't live by instinct or genetic dictation the way most animals can. We have to make conscious choices and we need a way to gauge the quality of a choice so that we can build on previous experiences. Usually, when someone tells you not to judge, they're talking about more complicated judgments than what is immediately physically beneficial or dangerous. However, every judgment ultimately comes down to deciding if something is good or bad. If you don't use your judgment to evaluate people, you have no reason to expect to be surrounded by worthy friends. So, in short, the next time someone tells you not to judge, you'd do well to judge them.

This post can also be viewed on the New Madisonian, where I will be posting exclusively starting in a week.