A Few Thoughts on Passing Judgment

I'm proud of this recent response I posted via social media on an article.  I figured it would be nice to be able to access this again in the future in case I ever needed it, so I'm just copying it here.

Misdirected awareness doesn't bring healing. This article may improve the awareness of dangers in prescription drug addiction, but at what cost? The blaming tone is definitely mass-consumable, but it doesn't encourage reconciliation, which is what is really needed for these individuals and families, right? Does this article treat Mormons with all the many levels of complexity and nuance and richness that is true of Mormon people? Sorry it really doesn't. I know from my own experience that it isn't healthy to make assumptions about anyone, especially when I know I'm painting them the way I want them to appear, and this article uses much too broad a brush. Overgeneralizing about any group of people is unfair and unhealthy. Stereotypes don't hold up nearly so well when its person to person or face to face. I've studied the media. I know how it works, and I'm not buying it. Divisiveness seems to have increased in the past several years, driven by mass media monetization tactics, and this could easily be as much to blame for drug addictions as any other cultural factors. It takes personal integrity not to buy into the us-vs.-them mentality the media dishes out. The reason to care about someone with an addiction is because they're a human being, not because they're a victim! When I find that I'm making assumptions about someone else or an entire group of people, its a big red flag for me that I need to use Byron Katie's turn-arounds (see her free worksheet at thework.com) and realize that the problems I perceive in the world around me are more often problems of my own creation, or imagination. This article comes from a place of partial truths and conditional love. For me, whole truths and unconditional love lead to healing.