This distinction feels very important, and yet difficult to make clearly. I mean, bad actions should be punished, right? And bad judgment is like… everyone has a right to their own opinion… but also, I have a right to avoid associating with people who have too many tattoos (because that is my judgment, which again may be right or wrong, but it’s my right to make it).
Problem is, avoiding some kinds of people is itself a form of punishment. I mean, if every refuses to hire the guy with the tattoos, then he is de facto being punished for his choice, which didn’t harm anyone.
This tension is weaker when there are many possibilities. Like, if I choose to avoid the guy with the tattoos, but many other people are okay with it, he will probably not even notice. The tension becomes stronger when the options are few, like if there are six families living in a block of flats, and five of them keep having a party together once in a while, but the guy with the tattoos never gets invited.
Some people try to resolve this tension by saying that all judgments of character are bad (because they sometimes translate to actual punishment). This seems to me obviously wrong, and also obviously hypocritical because everyone is making judgments of some kind (the person saying that all judgments are bad is thereby making a meta-judgment against people who make judgments of character). On the other hand, considering how stupid most people are, I would prefer if no one could punish me for my judgment, if it harms no one. No obvious solution here.
This distinction feels very important, and yet difficult to make clearly. I mean, bad actions should be punished, right? And bad judgment is like… everyone has a right to their own opinion… but also, I have a right to avoid associating with people who have too many tattoos (because that is my judgment, which again may be right or wrong, but it’s my right to make it).
Problem is, avoiding some kinds of people is itself a form of punishment. I mean, if every refuses to hire the guy with the tattoos, then he is de facto being punished for his choice, which didn’t harm anyone.
This tension is weaker when there are many possibilities. Like, if I choose to avoid the guy with the tattoos, but many other people are okay with it, he will probably not even notice. The tension becomes stronger when the options are few, like if there are six families living in a block of flats, and five of them keep having a party together once in a while, but the guy with the tattoos never gets invited.
Some people try to resolve this tension by saying that all judgments of character are bad (because they sometimes translate to actual punishment). This seems to me obviously wrong, and also obviously hypocritical because everyone is making judgments of some kind (the person saying that all judgments are bad is thereby making a meta-judgment against people who make judgments of character). On the other hand, considering how stupid most people are, I would prefer if no one could punish me for my judgment, if it harms no one. No obvious solution here.
The story had a solution for a ‘more extreme’ problem—acquire more information. It’s not that there’s no way out.