Yes, it is possible to perceive
others without judging them, but it is a very rare quality to have. Most people make judgments within seconds of
meeting a person, or even talking on the phone with them. I have lived in many different states and all
over the world, and when I live in a place long enough, I tend to pick up the mannerisms
of the local people. For instance when I
lived in Georgia, I picked up a southern accent, but when I came back to California
on vacation and was introduced to new people, I was perceived as uneducated
solely on my accent. Or here’s another
one… I am a ranch girl, grew up on a ranch, drive a large truck, have horses,
pigs, sheep, goats, etc., and because of this I get the stereo type of “stupid
hick”. It doesn't matter that it takes a lot of work to run a ranch, or that they
may not know me, but people like to judge, it’s our culture.
I think it’s a matter of teaching
our children not to be judgmental. For a
lot of us it’s too late, we already have the bad habit, but we can teach the
young. I am sure I am not the best
example, as I have been judged a lot, and even now I tend to judge people and
places regularly, but I hope I can instill the patience in my children not to
be as judgmental as I am, and maybe as the generations go on, it can get
better.
For a while I thought some people couldn’t judge people, and it was only a select few who are socially powerful. However I honestly feel it’s impossible to judge someone after reading all these posts and thinking about it for a while. Everything from your first visual appearance with someone, listening to a speaker, like you said over the telephone, and even people on television. However, it all depends whether or not you apply the judgment or not and if you do, how. In terms of reserving the judgment to yourself, telling them or expressing in another way. On the topic of teaching our kids to not be judgmental, they should however, just not apply it directly or wait. Judging isn’t necessarily unhealthy, just rude in a sense.
ReplyDeleteHowever that is just my two cents!
It was interesting to read the example of the judgments that people makes about you. Since I lived for the first 26 years of my life in a different country, I feel as if I am functionally illiterate when it comes to these titles/names/categories. Many times I hear people classifying others by using these "nick names" that seems so weird to me. For example, "Red Neck"; I asked many people to explain me who are the Red Neck people, and each one of them gave me a different example. And there are so many more, like the one you just mentioned, "hick". What is a hick? This is the first time I hear this one. And why there is any connection between farm and hick? It is just sounding so weird. Sometimes it makes me think that people can see things in others that I can't, as if I am missing important information.
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