Don’t judge

Let’s not make unfair judgments.

I am always thinking that we are in such a hurry to judge people and their actions. Why do we allow ourselves to judge someone we don’t know and have never had contact with, based purely on their appearance, resulting in the wrong impression being implanted in our minds? The more I think about this, the more I get confused. I was born in a society where the vast majority of people expresses their opinion about the rest and passes unfair judgement. Whenever these people see someone sloppily dressed in the street or around town, their first thought is that this person is dirty and undisciplined, or that they come from a family that lacks respect. It doesn’t occur to them that they might not have had time to get ready or that they had no other choice. If they see someone with a tattoo, they start talking about them. They are judgmental and refuse to accept that people have different tastes that we must all respect, and they think that a tattoo implies a bad person.

Despite his tattooed body, that person might be the angel that would save someone’s life. When some people see an over-made up, scantily dressed woman, they stare at her in such a severe way that she becomes flustered. That is why when someone in our society wants to do something, he is worried about what others might think. Naturally, this sort of judgement is not exclusive to outward appearance but encompasses people’s private lives. It doesn’t occur to them that their unfair judgement might harm someone’s reputation to the extent that it may end up destroying that person’s life. Before travelling abroad, while I still lived in my community at home, I used to think that only my fellow countrymen were so judgmental and gave so much importance to outward appearance. However, when I travelled to European countries I reached the conclusion that it wasn’t just my society at home that was full of those sorts of people, but that one can find them everywhere.

I came across them in various places. I heard their comments, saw the way they stared and asked myself for the hundredth time why do we gossip about others and judge them? Of course, in European societies, this happens far less than it does in my country. This is one of the reasons for progress in these countries. Every person instinctively believes that he is better than the rest. Even criminals and crooks try to justify their mistakes instead of acknowledging them. If only people would accept that they are not perfect and far from flawless, they would never judge the mistakes of others. Let’s try not to interfere in other people’s business, so that we can improve our own life, the life of others, as well as our society’s culture. Let’s not pass unfair judgement on people before getting to know them.

*This article has been published in issue #3 of “Migratory Birds” newspaper, which was released as an annex with “Efimerida ton Syntakton” newspaper (Newspaper of the Editors) on September 30th – October 1st 2017.