Being Judgemental in Life & Politics

Being Judgemental in Life & Politics Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

…it has to set right with my heart and brain ....

My Brother’s Keeper and Being Judgmental

From traditional religion, I think the idea being my brother’s keeper captures my value of compassion.  I think compassion dictates that we must care for the weaker in society, the poor that cannot afford food or healthcare, the mentally ill, the homeless, the fatherless (or motherless), the pregnant, and anyone else that is behind the eight-ball.  And, no the person needing help does not have to be perfect or free from making mistakes that caused his problem.  He just has to be human, like me.  

I don’t know the story of most people needing help.  The guy on the corner with a sign that says homeless, need food.  I can make up a story about him that makes it his fault that he is on the corner begging, or perhaps it is his father’s fault, or it's his fault because he is on drugs.  If I can somehow make it his fault then I can feel good about not helping, can’t I?  

The truth is that finding fault is not simple, useful, or accurate(true).  Real life is complicated and there is usually plenty of fault spread around starting from birth until the moment you see the homeless man begging on the corner.  If there is a god, then that is his realm sorting out who is to blame for the man being homeless.  But, even if you blame barometer puts 90% of the blame on the homeless man, he still needs help.  Perhaps, he needs training on life skills that he lacks, or he needs to retake third grade math that destroyed his self confidence, who knows.  And, who knows, perhaps he is that 1% of humanity that is just rotten to the core, because that always could be true.  But, odds are that he is part of the 99% of humans that has just made some mistakes and life gave him some bad breaks to go along with his bad decisions, or perhaps, he has just been at the wrong place at the wrong time for most of his life.

In short, you can make up a story and chose not to help.  You can judge him. You can be judgemental.  Or you can show compassion and accept that your judgment is likely superficial and inaccurate on his worthiness for your help.  You can go down either road in this judgment game for entire classes of people.  You can make up a story that homeless deserve the help of their government or not by simply making up a story that gets you off the hook or you can accept they are humans like you that deserve your compassion and the support of you and our government.  

Why the government.  Because the problems in this country are so massive and are only getting worse.  And what better use could there be for our taxes than helping the weak among us? There are deep structural problems in our economic structure that we will discuss in another blog.

Healthcare and Being Our Brother’s Keeper

Let’s consider a real life example to apply our values to our politics.  Obamacare is an example of all Americans being our brother’s keeper and helping those that lack healthcare.  But even when such help is free (Texas and Florida), Republicans/ baptists, etc. reject the idea of helping their neighbors who need healthcare.  Any religion that lacks such compassion seems very un-Jesus like and judgmental.

True, Republicans say Obamacare is a bad way to take care of those that are un-insured.  But, compared to what?  It is the best, it is only way to do it right now.  Repealing it won’t help the 10 million or so that are on Obamacare, or the 30 million that don’t have health care. Republicans have blocked the expansion of medicaid in many countries that would have helped another 30 million get healthcare. Who does that hurt, the poor of course that don't have health care.
Have no problem with the Republicans improving Obamacare care or replacing it with something better, something that takes care of more people better, that would be great, that would be compassion, that would be being your brother’s keeper. (You can even call it Trumpcare, although the idea of him helping the poor seems ridiculous.)  To just say they don’t deserve health care is being judgmental, putting your value as a human above their value as a human. To say we can't afford it is to say they are not as important as other items on our budget.*

what value guides your opinion

*Cut US military spending to be equal to double the sum of the military spending of China and Russia put together, use the difference to help the weak and downtrodden in our country and balance our budget.