Oh hello darling and welcome back to January on benpechey.com, continuing the theme of ‘2021, let’s do better’ today I want to tackle the judgment that so many of us faced in 2020.
The pandemic saw a rise in cases of Covid, but judgement levels were at an all-time high too. The irony of me judging people judging others is not lost on me I can assure you of that.
The pandemic and merry-go-round of lockdowns forced us into our own homes, and for many of us online. We have never spent so much time online, and we spent a larger proportion online last year. One of the advances of the internet and social media means that we have everything at our fingertips and we can see so much more than we could a hundred years ago.
Alas with all good, comes more bad, and thus the power to see more is one of the curses of the internet. Suddenly the biggest of flaws were glaring straight at us from our phones. Take the easing of restrictions, and the first day Primark could open, and how those that queued were openly mocked for accessing low budget items. No one knew their situation, and for months perhaps they hadn’t had access to online, thus this was necessary for them.
I hate to use the term Witch hunt, but at times like this, it really feels applicable. When someone uses their strength to build up a platform, they have power, we can all admit that. People with power also make mistakes, and when that happened last year, people went for blood. I saw so many activists and influencers being cancelled and hauled across the coals.
As an advocate myself, I talk about risk and leveraging my own image in my job. Last year, for the first time, felt like there was more at stake. I was worried about how my work would be interpreted, and I worried that I might fall foul of an online witch hunt. Now my wok universally does good, and there isn’t an evil bone in my body, but the hype and hysteria that online judgment whipped up made me feel like that.
The crazy thing is that we should be here to help each other, no one person has all the answers and we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t make mistakes. What baffles me is that we have lost all forms of leniency and forgiveness. I believe that we get out of life what we put in, thus if we ourselves should treat others as we would wish to be treated. I wouldn’t want to be judged unfairly, thus I would afford others the same rights.
We’re all human, and whether we like it or not, we’re stuck on the planet together, so we should make it as easy as possible. There will always be differences of opinion and contrasting views, but at our core, we should at least have respect for human life and emotion.
We all judge, even me, and that is normal, we have the right too, but that should be done privately. In 2021 I hope we can foster the ability to show a bit more kindness and a bit less judgement!
Thank you for joining me today, I will be back next week to explore the ramifications of Gatekeeping. I look forward to seeing you then.
Shot by Rachel Pechey
