Judge My Offensiveness.

Offensive.

Such an important word these days.

Everyone is a judge now, so it’s a good time to look at the word, I think.

Start with your Dictionary.com, which gives the verb as passing judgement, or deciding critically, or and this is a great or, estimating, making careful guesses. Most of the sentences used in support have to do with Law and Order, unquestionably the good guy in this definition. See for yourself.

Compare this with the scribal dictionary, six inches of tiny script from 1936. As you see, the first definition is, and I quote, “To compare facts or ideas and perceive their agreement or disagreement, and thus to distinguish truth from falsehood.” It lists a few others, to esteem; to think; to reckon and offers support from the Bible, using the word in quotes from the great fictional God in the sky.

I leave Wikipedia out of this one, a Labyrinthine world with many authors and no linguistic harmony. Tortuous, and that’s coming from me. I can speculate as well as the next guy, is what every contributor thinks. The difference is that I actually can. I was there, after all. Everywhere, at every time. How do you argue with a primary source? An eye witness, a direct contributor, a joyous participant, a vicious instigator. I am all of these and more.

So let’s talk about judging. I will line up our two debaters, on the one side a first-rate Hippie, who is fiercely non-judgemental, on the other we will have the scribe, a reluctant participant who will, nevertheless, defend her right to judge.

Actual Judge will be myself, of course, and again we have a situation where I am uniquely qualified to preside, since I hold to no Law and Order, listen to no God, and have a clear mind unencumbered by millennia of propaganda. Untouched by the archeological evidence, I may have put much of it there, who knows? Indifferent to morals or values, no, scornful of them, I see virtues for the lies they are, the lies you have been fed for centuries so you can be kept in line.

Again I say to you, use your head, think for yourselves, what are they telling you, why? Does it even make sense? Compare every single day of your life with all that you have been taught to believe. Is that really how it is? You are so eager to embrace the first step you never even see the long game, how can you hope to change?

Am I biased for the side of evil? Are we still defining it that way? Good versus bad? Then yes, I would come down for bad, but that’s just your extremely limited vision. Drop both of those ideas, think a bit harder.

Judge. Hippie, I let you go first, since I can hear your passionate heart beating from here, give us your reasons, I beg you.

I start with the idea that we are all different, no one can deny it, so we can have literally no idea what makes a person something we call bad. We can’t know what drove them to it, we can’t see into their heart and find repentance, none of us are gods, we have no right to judge.

Scribe: Don’t call fictional characters into this. People make the gods and give them the right to judge, even when they do it badly.

Fine, take god out of it. Is it sound reasoning to judge a person without knowing much about them? Without knowing what their mind looks like? What about the forces in their life? Why don’t they count?

Scribe: You mistake me, they do count, as do all the things that bring a person to where they stand on any given day. Personal history is critical, but when all things are considered, nothing can ever confer the right to be an asshole, so if you are one, I’m going to call you on it. If I see you yank your dog’s leash, abuse your wife and kids, use your personality as a weapon, I am calling you an asshole and I say freely here that the world has no need of you. That is my judgement.

How harsh, how brutal, is this really your mindset? How can you be any kind of witch and make such severe judgement calls?

Scribe: Are you judging me for my attitude? Of course not.

Do this for me, find the nearest nursing home, the closest living graveyard, spend the day there and see if you come away with no judgements in your heart. Human feedlots. Is it possible that so many people are assholes who deserve to be abandoned by their families? Why are they then?

Go to the poorest part of your town and spend a day there. Imagine living there, as I have. Listen and look and come away clean, if you can.

It sounds like you’re judging them for their economic status, when you should know better. Again I say that we can’t know what brought them there. We have no idea what goes on behind closed doors. I prefer to think there is inherent decency in people.

Scribe: Do you think it looks different from what shows on the outside? Probably. It will be much uglier.

It wasn’t the Devil in my head that made me judge the world, it was my own personal experience with it. All in all, a dark and horrific place, especially so, since over and over we hear that we know better.

I judge us all. I judge myself for my species, my weaknesses, my helplessness.

If you think you don’t judge me, look again. Spend some time inside your own head. Try to account for everything you think, you can’t. This is what I have learned, lowly scribe as I am.

Ask yourself this, if you’re not judging your world, who is?

 Judgement: Oooh. Touché ma Belle.

“Your Wave Caresses Me”  by The Last Sighs of the Wind. This song can be recycled forever.