It’s ok to judge — it really is

We’re going to ask you to help us rescue the word judging or the noun judgement from the sin-bin it seems to have consigned to of late, dust it down and put back at the centre of ourselves where some might say – OK we might say – it truly belongs.

Because judgement is human. Judgement helps us live. Judgement is good.  Judging others is a form of navigation to trim our sails and keep us from straying off course. We all live in society after all, and have other people’s needs, anxieties, phobias, delights and drives to take into account.

As humans, we make judgements all the time. We just can’t help it, any more than the scorpion can help its sting or Danny Dyer can help appearing in truly terrible British gangster movies. We make tough calls. We draw lines in the sand, we put our feet down and call spades… well, spades. 

We decide, for instance, that this road is safe to cross because a green pedestrian has lit up in front of us, that bigger, stronger horse will pull our plough faster and straighter than this smaller, weaker pony. That man with a pistol running out of the bank probably won’t stop and sign our petition against the slaughter of the whales.

We use similar heuristics [1] to make snap judgements about places, images and things too. Stare out of the window, or around your office or the café where you’re overstaying your welcome because you’re so engrossed in this book. Notice how your eyes light on certain things or people as you glance around, and how your mind automatically forms opinions about what you see.

[1] We’re allowed to use this word because Andreas is half-Greek and Paul has been to Corfu on holiday. It means a ‘good-enough’ approach to making a quick decision. The perfect word. Not showing off at all. Says us.