OK. Here it is. Being judgmental of
others, no matter the circumstances is self harm and obviously in bad
taste. It's indicative of our own issues when we're critical of
others. It makes us look small and vindictive. I'm not telling you
anything you don't know here, am I?
And yet every day, on or off social
media, bashing others is glorified repeatedly. I have caught myself
doing it as well. Now, I don't know why this is. Maybe it's the
influence of sitcom like humor that pervades mass media. Maybe it's
all those irresistibly sarcastic Facebook memes. Or maybe it's
simply the natural evolution of societal conditioning. But whatever
it is, I don't like it at all.
I mean, seriously folks, even if we
have accidentally evolved into this kind of thinking, we can
purposely evolve out of it. It's just not cool to put people down for
their differences, kick them in the face when they're struggling
mentally, give them a hard time for being, poor, rich, fat, thin,
pretty, ugly, insecure, overly confident, etc. etc. I could continue
for days here. You get the point.
Making other people look bad or
highlighting their faults for the sake of a laugh is grade school
behavior. It's rude. It's counter-productive. It's just plain
unacceptable. Most of us have been the victim of another person's
criticism at one time or another. We should know how horrid it feels.
People are literally killing themselves over being criticized or
bullied.
So why do we keep up this madness? I
have no idea.
Now, believe me, the irony and
hypocrisy of this post does not allude me. I realize that I'm being
critical of other people being critical here. But the thing is, it's
the behavior I am condemning, not the people who engage in it.
My personal pet peeve of late is those
posts people make on the book of faces concerning “fake” people.
Folks, there are no fake people. There are only people struggling to
fit into this messed up society the best way they know how. And
doesn't that apply to all of us? Aren't we all on a journey that
includes plenty of stumbling blocks and a lot of confusion?
We don't like being misguided, losing
our way or being inherently fallible in other ways do we? We're all
just trying our best to fit in, right? And we certainly don't feel
good when our mistakes are paraded around or shoved in our faces do
we? Then why on earth do we do it to others?
What if I told you that the main reason
we judge others just may be that we don't feel that great about
ourselves? What if I told you that it's time to realize that being
critical of others for being fake is in and of itself, a feeble
attempt on our own part to fit in? (Thereby rendering us guilty of
the very self centered, false aura we're accusing them of having.)
When we put others down, we're not
exactly being nice to ourselves either. Most of us know it's wrong to
judge others. But what a lot of us don't realize is that, by judging
others, we essentially reveal ourselves as having conceited
tendencies as well.
So folks, how about we stop this
behavior now? We're all basically good people, right? So let's start
acting like it. If someone we know is struggling to fit in, why not
reach out a hand instead of kicking them off the ladder?
Couldn't hurt. Might help.
But hey, what do I know? I'm struggling
too. And yes, I've had people refer to me and some of my family
members as fake. That's probably because we prefer to speak of the
good things in our lives while we work on the negative qualities in
private. But trust me, we have our issues as well. Lots of them. And
we know it. We have no delusions. Just a lot of hope for improvement.
Part of which includes having better
acceptance of others.
Life is a journey, folks. Some of us
may never be lucky enough to reach our destination or even get close.
So let's keep that in mind when we are tempted to be critical. Let's
truly lift each other up. Let's do what we can to enrich each other's
lives, rather than picking at every little imperfection we see.
Maybe someday we'll evolve into true
acceptance of the highly fallible and unique beings we all are. But
in the meantime, let's just make an effort to be kinder, shall we?
Because no one is fake. We're all just doing our best to survive.
Inner peace simply does not come without knowing you are treating
others the way you wish to be treated.
Peace is earned, not given.
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