We love to judge. To gossip. To belittle.
Not everyone, and not all the time, but enough for these feelings to fuel multi-billion dollar industries.
Even if we never say it out loud, we derive a certain pleasure from others’ misfortune. There’s even a name for the phenomenon—Schadenfreude.
We do it partly, because our brains are wired for comparison and social currency. And in part, because we’re trained societally to determine our own value relative to others.
Pile on the anonymity of the screen or the page and we’ve become a culture that not only judges, but determines the entire worth of a human, all too often, by their worst moment.
We see it in the news cycle, in politics and Hollywood. But, we also see it in our towns, the local club, our own families and supposed friends.
What if the value of your entire existence was judged by the meanest thing you’ve said or thought, or the biggest mistake you’ve made? What would that look like? How might it make you feel?
What if, instead of reveling in the belittling of another human based on a moment, we looked through the lens of empathy and compassion? How might that change things?
That’s what we’re talking about on today’s short and sweet GLP Riff.