Clarity Is Dangerous: Discernment vs. Judgment

When talking about this, people usually get angry because you’re pointing out something they didn’t want to face yet or at all. But dare I say, this blog post is important. Sure, almost every single one of my blogs is important, but this one is like the spine of the body. Your body can’t function without the spine.

Trust me when I say, sometimes I can slip up. I’m an emotional person—I’ve been called a crybaby for how emotional I can get. I’m talking, crying over random animal videos. I annoy myself at times, but I’ve since learned to balance that emotion with logic.

It wasn’t easy at first, but I started to get the hang of it. That emotion made sense for me when my creative spark and emotion clicked together. Being creative often means being emotional, and if you read any of my blogs, you will see that. I often give you valuable information to teach you about yourself that no one ever talks about.

Not only can creators make masterpieces, but we’re like sponges, so boundary setting is really important. As a creative, you can come across manipulative people. But as an everyday person going through life day to day, you can come across manipulative individuals. It can be a relative, a friend, or a co-worker. That’s easy to cherry-pick from the bunch. You interact with these people almost every day. But… what about influential people you see in magazines or on TV?

THE ILLUSION

See, how they trick you is by pitting you against one another. “How do they do that?” Right? They often separate you by giving negative connotations to your culture, your class, your race, your religion… even your gender. They want you to judge each other. They want you to ignore the bigger picture.

The sooner you ignore the bigger picture, the more you won’t be asking the right questions, like, “Why am I drowning in this economy?” They want you to argue about things like, “You’re just not working hard enough.” When, really, the everyday average person does work hard, they’re just left in the dark. They don’t want you to beat them at their own games.

They don’t want you to escape the system. Because if you escape the system, their world will go dark. No more grocery store clerks, no more farmers, no more construction workers. But this is farther from the truth. In my blog, Why Are You Letting Them Win, I explain capitalism. Capitalism is what makes the world go round, not their silly rules.

But… I did not come to talk about capitalism again. What I come to talk to you about is different, but it is interconnected. Everything is interconnected in your decision-making process. And again, they don’t outright teach you that. Only if you’re a deep thinker would you understand it immediately.

THE SONNET

What I want to discuss today is discernment versus judgment. It upsets me that not many know the difference. These two are very different. Let’s start with judgment. Judgment is a reaction without context. Judgment is seeing someone’s appearance and making it known how you feel about it, whether it be negative or positive.

Discernment, on the other hand, is evaluation with evidence. It’s discerning someone’s character because you have enough evidence. Not a lot of people use their discernment. They hop on the judgmental train because it’s what they’ve been taught. I’ll give you one example of judgment and one example of discernment.

Social media, everyone has it. We scroll through our Instagram feeds and see our favorite artist's outfit and immediately you start judging, “it doesn’t fit her right, “why’d she take it from that angle,” and so on and so forth. The good news is, it’s natural, but you can learn to control it, so people don’t use it against you.

Being a judge, on the other hand, is when discernment comes into play. And when I say judge, I mean court room judge. As a judge, your job is quite literally based off if you go by discernment. If you do your job based on judgment, you would then incarcerate the wrong person, and their lives are ruined.

DENOUEMENT

What they’re not telling you is that judging clouds your vision. Literally and figuratively. As your big sister, though, I’m here to steer you in the right direction. Knowing the difference makes a huge difference.

You know the drill. If you agree with me, tell me why—if you don’t—tell me why, but keep it respectful. Agreeing to disagree does exist, but you have to tell me why you disagree, and…it actually has to make sense.