English literature contains at least two
classic statements about pre-judgement. One is the title of a novel by Jane
Austen. The other is in Alice in Wonderland when the King of Hearts asks
the Jury to consider its verdict before it has heard the first witness. If
pre-judgement, prejudice, judging before the evidence, is wrong, then
"post-judgement", judging after the evidence, must be right. But
"post-judgement" can instead mean just what comes after the judgement, in
particular its consequences.
The Day After Judgement by James
Blish is the sequel to the same author's Black Easter which ends with the
demons winning Armageddon. Despite their fantastic content, these works
address us. The Goat says:
"WE WILL DO WITHOUT THE ANTICHRIST. HE
WAS NEVER NECESSARY. MEN HAVE ALWAYS LED THEMSELVES UNTO ME." (1)
Later, as the last magicians approach
the demonic fortress, the white magician says:
"One thing is surely clear...We have
been making this journey all our lives." (2)
I have argued that judgement is part of
life, not its end. It may be that I am particularly aware of this. I was
continually judged and found wanting by both elders and peers because I did not
conform to their ideas of acceptable behaviour or personality. And I now see
that I was insufficiently attentive to many aspects of social interaction. But
condemnation was unhelpful. The conflict remained unresolved because we do not
choose to be who we are so we cannot change our personality as easily as we can
change a garment. And much of the condemnation was unwarranted. On a Sunday
afternoon, I preferred to read HG Wells in the attic than to watch Z Cars in the
kitchen so I was guilt tripped for not spending time with my family. I was made
to feel in the wrong for reading comics instead of books, for reading about
Hinduism instead of about Catholicism, for reading science fiction instead of
something else and for reading instead of doing something else. It was then
learned that neighbours who were a Judge and a Colonel also read science
fiction. I have certainly learned how not to saddle children and teenagers with unnecessary
guilt and resentment.
Making a virtue out of a necessity, I
became more adept than many fellow students and work colleagues at accepting and
heeding criticism and was even commended for this by an otherwise hostile
Manager who, I am pleased to say, was moved out during a re-organisation. More
recently, I have felt lousy when got at by an acquantance only to find
out that many others regard him as arrogant. I think the problem is with me.
They see it as with him.
The word "criticism" has a highly
negative value and is apparently taken to mean hostile judgement or
condemnation. I tried to tell a fellow student, "If you are criticising me for
taking too long to do that job, then that is alright," but was interrupted after
"...criticising..." with "I AM NOT CRITICISING YOU!" I gave a colleague advance
warning that some criticism was coming towards his College Department and thus
sparked an uproar, involving the College Principal, that was immediately
traceable back to me.
I know that there are acts that it is
right to feel bad about and others that I feel bad about only because of my
upbringing but I cannot locate the dividing line. In the unlikely event that
some higher power does judge us, he or it knows the score.
(1) Blish, James. Black Easter and
The Day After Judgement, London, 1981, p. 111.
(2) ibid, p. 200.
(2) ibid, p. 200.
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