Judging

See Selfishness — Medium http://buff.ly/1CEX3Vo

Not long ago I launched an idea called Triadic Philosophy. It is summarized in Triadic Philosophy 100 Aphorisms available at the Kindle Store.. It grew into several more books. Judging is a chapter in a successor work in progress called “The Collapse of Leadership”.

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Leadership collapses to the extent that it is mired in judging others. This judging takes several forms. All of them have a boomerang effect.

There is wrong judgment.

An example of this is the prevalent assumption that things are worse than they actually are. Any accurate assessment of how things are going in the world would suggest that things are getting better for millions upon millions of people. This verdict is supported by a growing body of facts relating to things like longevity and prosperity.

There is defensive judgment.

An example is the suggestion of nations that are democratic like Israel and the United States that they are paragons of virtue when any analysis of their behavior indicates that on an objective level they have done at least as much harm if not vastly more harm than those they judge.

And there is suppositional judgment.

This is judgment based on supposition, on what cannot be proved to be the case. An example is the notion that some are saved into eternal bliss because of beliefs they have in this life. There is not the slightest evidence that this is so but it leads people to such extremes as what is called martyrdom. But what it actually is is senseless self-harm.

It can be seen that all these forms of judgment are a result of a descent into evil. By evil I mean self-harm. The reason I use the term evil rather than the more modest harmful is philosophical. I want to underline that in an ontological and teleological sense, what is evil is that part of reality that does not ultimately survive. It is that part of us which is not the us that tends toward truth and beauty. It is that which makes life ugly and false.

It is a common fallibility of which we are speaking.

We are the very mixture we are addressing. We constantly judge in the three ways mentioned above.

Wrong.

Defensive.

Suppositional.

And the only way we can be rescued from that temptation is to engage in conscious self-respect and embrace critical thinking. These are first steps up the ladder toward becoming loving and free.

Judge not that you be not judged is the classic formulation of Jesus’ caution against this particular evil.

We are judged precisely by the presence within us of the very evils we exorcize. The only way leadership can be saved from collapsing due to ill judgment is to extract from within us whatever has made it impossible for us to know the truth and beauty of matters.

We have reason for hope

I have been largely unaware of the positive realities of improving health around the world. But here is a glimpse of what I am talking about. Similar inklings can be gleaned when considering recent declines in violent behavior.

I do not advocate Pollyanna judgments. But note that negative judgments that are wrong, defensive and suppositional are rife, even among those selected for their leadership as highly paid lecturers.

The only leaders who should survive the skewering in this text are those who consciously embrace the higher values of which I suggest there are at least the following ten.