“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” ( Matthew 7, verses 1-2 (New International Version))
I suspect society has, and will always be judgmental. Probably going back to the earliest family group where the woman said, “you’re not wearing that to the Mammoth hunt, are you?” If it weren’t so - we wouldn’t have so many instances of mob mentality in our history.
For example, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who sought to trap him on the law with the stoning of a woman for adultery. “When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’” (John 8, verse 7 NIV)
Then, of course, we have the French during their first revolution. Where the mobs took over and the Guillotine became the social event of the day as the nobility was carted in for their amusement.
The question is – What happens to individual judgment when the vocal judgment of an angry society takes over?
In this day of instant mass communication, it is so easy to play to the emotions of the mob, eliciting outrage or anger from those who have neither the inclination, nor the time to consider consequences, and who believe they will remain anonymous behind the mob as they cast their stones or yell for the beheading of the rich, famous or infamous.
From time to time I see questions from some of those same people who are mystified by the loss of “common sense.” I guess it would judgmental of me to suggest it is one of the first victims of today’s mob mentality.
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