Be a light, not a judge

In a crowd of loose tongues, be a steadily burning light of compassion and understanding.

It’s easy to judge but much harder to love. Knee-jerk reactions, cursory character analyses, hot takes on current events or pop culture scandals dominate our day-to-day lives. Demands to see an increasingly nuanced socio-cultural landscape in black and white intensify.

Critics, detractors, and contentious commentators abound–but where are the “lights?” And how can we strive to become lights when the virtues that promote a healthy society are eroding? We have become more inclined to reward bluster and vitriol while deriding intellectual humility. Civility, charity, and compassionate curiosity have been re-casted as weaknesses when in fact, they are the hallmarks of a flourishing and harmonious society. 

Today, everybody talks–and the democratization of information channels has done wonders in holding institutions and individuals accountable. Marginalized and underserved populations have been afforded platforms to air their struggles and muster support. And this on the whole has been positive.

However, more nefarious forces are at work, sowing division and pitting different groups against each other. The danger of judgment is its tendency for reduction–it lumps people together into facile taxonomies that homogenize, erasing the vibrant splashes of difference that exist within a given group. We must resist the temptation to perceive individuals and collections of individuals as monoliths, glossing over personal idiosyncrasies and group intricacies.