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Are We Afraid of the Word "Judgment?"
A letter (a form letter, of course) from William F. Buckley arrived yesterday, addressed to me, that I feel I need to respond to. It starts "Dear Intelligent American," then asserts that "liberals have virtually criminalized "judgment". . .and condemned it to the verbal Hades normally reserved for terms such as "racist" and "serial killer." "Exhibit the merest soupcon of judgment in polite society and you risk denunciation as one who is (gasp!) 'judgmental.'" After a few examples, such as "sound judgment is one of the qualities that set us apart from insect life and the Osbourne family," he says, "welcome to the National Review, where, you will be pleased to discover, we have our own definition of 'judgment,' namely. . .the condition of having a functioning brain and not being afraid to use it!" Well, I have to admit that I and many of my friends do cringe at the word "judgment" and certainly would not want to be referred to as someone who is "judgmental," yet, if the National Review defines "judgment" as the condition of having a functioning brain and not being afraid to use it," then I do want to qualify. However, to entice readers to subscribe to the magazine, he proceeds to use a quite different use of the term “judgmental.” “Here at National Review, it should come as no surprise, we exercise our right to be judgmental with gusto. To wit: . . ‘every Islamoloony who attains his dream of martyrdom is one less problem for Western civilization.’” The American Heritage College Dictionary defines “judgment" as “1. the formation of an opinion after consideration or deliberation. 2a. The mental ability to perceive and distinguish relationships: discernment. The capacity to assess situations or circumstances and draw sound conclusions, good sense.” I chose not to subscribe to the National Review, although the letter did make me think. The Polished Mirror can be a forum where we can "consider" and "deliberate," "to develop the mental to perceive," "discern" and to "draw sound conclusions." We can be discerning and have strong opinions without dehumanization, demonization, and racism. It's only through this process that we can start articulating our opinions more clearly to effectively make a difference in this world. William F. Buckley, Jr. must be sending the above letter to every home in America, otherwise I wouldn't have been on his mailing list. Let's make our voices heard on issues and show that we also have "functioning brains" that we are not afraid to use. There are responses to this message:
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