SURE LABELLING IS FUN - UNTIL YOU GET HURT

From November 03, 2007 ON AIR JUDGE WYLD SHOW - Radio Talk

Excerpt from show prep notes. On air content may have been more or less. Not journalistic or debate notes.

LABELS

I can’t believe how new experiences keep reinforcing old truths… We’ve heard the ‘don’t be so judgmental’ ‘Don’t JUDGE ME’. That is so bratty. But the other bratty attitude is the misuse of the concept of labeling people.

You shouldn’t label people… hmmm ok. It seems like a reasonable concept. I met someone a few weeks ago whom I’ve known professionally from a distance. This is someone who gets paid to be a counselor… 25 years of giving professional counseling.

This person Lets call her Betty, admonished others over labeling others. Betty admonishes other professionals over labeling others. Betty will filibuster for long periods of time on how people are stigmatized by being labeled and its hurtful and wrong to label people.

HOWEVER, when Betty hears a person speak, she IMMEDIATELY categorizes and LABELS them. Immediately she segregates them from her own faulty self image. Immediately she will label you a conservative or liberal, happy or sad, healthy or jaded, closed minded or open.

What she really is exhibiting is closed mindedness toward people who are healthy enough to have principles, have opinions, and have the strength to know themselves and what they will have patience for in life.

Is she at fault for labeling, not really, we all have to get through life and labeling is a way of cleaning up our world so we can be functional in the world.

We always need to be careful of our labeling and not send labeling into dangerous actions. We do need to investigate and challenge some of the labeling.

Betty’s crime is that she ignored her own strong tendency to label and didn’t temper the labeling advice to its essential useful purpose versus the dangerous areas of labeling.

You might judge me as being judgmental; so that makes two of us. Comments?

Sincerely, JUDGE WYLD