1. Evaluation

How does one judge a person? What I am trying to ask is, when you meet a person, your interaction with him/her is largely influenced by the ‘opinion’ you have formed about that person in your head. This “forming of opinion” is based on past experiences of conversing with that person and also on the feedback received from other people regarding that person. In short, you form your opinion about a certain individual after hearing to other opinions and by your assessment of his/her personality. You may ask, why at all should one form an opinion about another person. Well that is human nature for you, and if there are people living without forming opinions about the people they interact with, then they are truly a blessed group. Because, at a certain level in your mind, you do tend to form an opinion about every other person.So, the focus is now on your assessment of an individual’s personality. When you think of a person, what comes to mind is a few striking good features(if any), but they are eclipsed by even the smallest of the bad qualities possessed. You may be a calm and composed person throughout your life, but just one angry outburst of yours damages your image, because that is what will be remembered. That is the way the human mind works. We tend to remember more of the negativity, that the positive aspects of a person. One stark negative quality is enough for a person to get labeled as having that feature. You may have a million good qualities and might have done a billion good deeds, but it the one shady act/bad deed of yours that will be highlighted and projected.I can give a number of examples. Say, You have joined as a freshman in a college. You meet a guy/gal and become friends with that individual. You party along and have a jolly good time in the company of that friend. But one day, you come to know that that person “smokes and drinks”. You belonging to a traditional family with values filled into your head , are totally against smoking. When you meet that person the next time around, the only thought that lingers in your head is “here comes the smoker…….. here comes the smoker”. No matter how good that person has been to you, or how well you both have clicked as friends, you just cant seem to get this thing out of your head. All the positive aspects seen from the past experiences with that person are forgotten. You begin to judge that person based on only one negative quality of his/her. Now, another debatable point is , smoking and drinking is a conscious choice made by a person, fully aware of the externalities involved. Hence, you should not judge that person just by one choice he/she has made, because that is just not fair.Coming to the American presidents, first talk of Nixon. His “Watergate” scandal tarnished his image and he has ever since been looked at as the “the guy who disrespected democracy”. Talking about Mr. Bill Clinton, he passed many daring and revolutionary policies and took America to great new heights. But the incident with Ms.Lewinsky is what made him get impeached. Now, if even you as a layman, are asked to speak a few sentences about Clinton, the first thing that will come to mind is the “sexual assault on Lewinsky”.The human mind works in this fashion, and it is very tough to change it.I am not asking you to forget the negative aspects while assessing a personage.One must be able to judge a person by looking at the whole spectrum of qualities he/she possesses. This is really tough, because the mind is not prepared to work in this way. That is human nature and it’s unavoidable, but now that you are consciously aware of this idea, try to shape your way of thinking so as to judge a person in the most appropriate way possible. Just give this a thought.If this is difficult to put into action, try not to form any opinion about a person.Just take that person as he/she is, without any prejudices.