Day after day the world is getting crazier, and a new virus has spread widely around the world causing stereotyping, discrimination and prejudging .. Almost every day we have to step into unexpected courts having to explain or defend an unnecessarily opened case .. isn’t that what describes life today?

Why are people becoming so judgmental? Is it because of the speed of life today that people don’t have time to listen, so they judge quickly? Is it because of the massive amount of information that people get confused and lose the way to correct information? Is it because life has become so material that people started forgetting the importance of feelings and values? Are we losing the route towards fairness and peaceful living?

The Gap!

Probably the most dangerous thing to earth is actually human beings themselves! Despite being intelligent creatures, the majority of human beings have used this intelligence to destroy rather than build .. Sometimes we actually destroy in the name of building .. right? Destroy agricultural land to build houses .. destroy nature to build resorts, and also destroy other people around us to build our own selves .. isn’t that true? Aren’t we all in one large food chain, racing for existence?

Here are some of the main reasons why people became judgmental lately and refuse to see the other side of the coin:

1. Tribalism / Herd mentality:

As human beings are social animals, they like to belong to a herd, and once they join, they see things in the scope of the herd and the paradigm (brain map) becomes shaped towards one direction, rejecting all other possible theories .. It’s like “Do What everyone is doing” thing … and as much as this is good for establishing culture, it hurts the learning process as new concepts, ideas and beliefs are then rejected instantly before they get properly debated / analysed.

2. Incomplete learning cycles:

People are so concerned today about getting degrees, but without proper plans on how to use the degrees they get to make a bigger outcome .. The journey from collecting data to actually learning wisdom is a very long one … But aren’t we all obsessed with short-cuts? We don’t have “time” for that .. do we?

Connecting information and being able to ask the question of “Why” needs a lot of resilience, courage, patience, openness and consumes a lot of time to explore …. and the main reason of why people became so judgmental is the actual ignorance that has started to grow massively, despite the huge number of universities and schools around the world .. People are studying a lot of “Information” but a very small number of them are actually turning the information to knowledge and limited number continuing the journey towards wisdom .. our lives are just full of short cuts .. aren’t they?

3. The “Me” Standards!

Instead of being objective, think of a situation from the far end, reflect and then set proper standards, people today are getting more and more subjective, personal, and consider themselves as “The Standard”, judging everyone else as off-track …. Think about it … if you are driving on a high speed, left lane, then you have a slow driver in front of you, won’t you ask them to give way and feel inpatient if they don’t do this quickly? How about if you are driving slower than others but on the left lane, and someone comes from behind, giving you lights / horn to give way .. how will you feel about it? We’re the standard right?

How can life be in the future then? What’s the remedy for this massive stereotyping happening across the world? …

Everyone has a story

Getting back to real humanity is the only solution …. a simple believe that there is a reason (logic) behind every act is key to retain human relationships .. we have to admit that we don’t listen enough today, and we don’t make the time to hear others’ stories, try to understand them so we can build new wisdom blocks .. we are too much in a hurry and we are busy collecting a lot of small things, forgetting how everything we collect can build a bigger thing ..

We need to start talking again … get to know your neighbor again … reconnect with each other again … don’t be scared to ask difficult questions, it is worth it .. it is the price of “Understanding”, and that’s the only route to gaining wisdom..

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”
Socrates

Written by:

Engagement Expert, International Speaker & Pragmatic researcher