The face of an individual is capable of telling one's whole life story with a simple glance. Is it an accurate account of who they really are though? By simply looking at the way someone dresses and acts, our mind quickly conjures up a label of the kind of person they are. This simple gut reaction judgement is not a bad thing. However if we go on to judge them entirely based on this gut reaction, the trouble begins.

    I have come to recognize this kind of immediate judgement within the most unexpected communities and environments. By focusing my attention on Adolf Hitler, Pope Benedict XVI, and Marilyn Manson, I was able to take some time to understand a bit more about them as individuals instead of what we learn through biased history, the media, and gossip. I also hoped to gain a better grasp of something many of us do on a daily basis, sometimes without even realizing it. I wanted to explore the idea and process of judgement. I forced myself to look at these three men in a new light, a light that may fail to illuminate them in the same way for others.

      Adolf Hitler. Just saying his name brings about images of concentration camps, terror, and death. Although all these things are connected to him, is it who he was as a human being? Was he the monster and true source of Nazi Germany or was he a mentally ill charismatic man who was being manipulated? While the horrible actions he was responsible for were made public for the world to see, who Hitler truly was is something no one will ever fully understand. 

     On the opposite end is Pope Benedict XVI. His title as pope brings you to imagine the pinnacle of the Roman Catholic Church. While he is the head of the Roman Catholic Church, it is important to keep in mind that he is still a human being living in the same sinful world as all of us. As a youth he was a member of the Hitler Youth as well as the German infantry. While the Pope can do no wrong in the minds of many believers, he is still a human with a past.

     Marilyn Manson is another charismatic leader for a different part of our society. When a person hears his name, they label him instantly with anti-social, anti-religious ideology. Rather than listening to his lyrics and seeing an artist that is jaded by the way people have used religion for their own purposes that has nothing to do with faith, they pass judgement on what they think they hear.

The error of judgement occurs in the simple fact that it does occur. Positively or negatively, it is still wrong.

    In doing this character study, their attributes as human beings became more important than the monsters, holy men, or anti-socialites they are most often portrayed as. This process also forced me to look at my own actions of judgement, making me realize that I truly have no right to judge another human being. I simply cannot 'judge a book by its cover'. In order to be understood, concepts, situations, and people cannot be taken out of context to bend the facts to fit your own perceptions. By forcing our labels onto other people, we would end up living in a naively twisted form of reality.

 

 

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