Finding Freedom from Judgment (+ chance to win a free audiobook)
How the judgments we make influence the lives we live and the fulfillment we achieve
Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live the “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme. This month we’re exploring fulfillment.
This Week at a Glance:
This week we look at the life of John Lewis and how he approached the civil rights movement. We see how he was able to manage his judgments and free himself from fear.
By the time you finish this meditation, you’ll learn:
🍭 What value-judgments are and how we apply them;
🍬 The difference between value-judgments and facts;
🍫 How to harness our judgments to free ourselves from their hold over us.
Plus read to the end to see how you can be entered for a chance to receive a free audio-copy of
latest book, Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor.
During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, John Lewis worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. on the philosophy of nonviolence as a way of ending segregation. MLK Jr. and Lewis, along with countless others knew that if they were to show up to protests and physically fight, their cause would go nowhere. Instead, they invoked the strategy of nonviolence as they protested with their principles and words.
Some of the things these nonviolent protestors faced when showing up to protest were jeering, being beaten with pipes, dogs, and billy clubs, even trampled by horses.
And yet, they pushed on, their bodies beaten but their spirits and strength growing.
As Lewis would later reflect, “we could feel our faith building and our strength gaining.”
By the time the movement had reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, a bridge named after the notorious Confederate and Ku Klux Klan supreme leader no less, in Selma, Alabama, Lewis was free of fear. He would write:
“By the time I stood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, I had no fear of physical harm or death. So when people ask me how I managed my fear in that moment, I can truthfully say I was not afraid. I knew by that time that no one had the power to injure me. I had taken that power away by experiencing the worst they could do and discovering it did not diminish me; it did not harm me; it set me free and moved my soul beyond the fear of death.”
Lewis and his 600 protestors stood opposite state troopers. As they marched across the bridge, the troopers pushed and beat them, using heavy violence to stop them from crossing.
The march and subsequent attack by the state troopers would be captured on film and broadcast to the nation. The violence shocked the country. The event would ultimately become known as Bloody Sunday due to the violence. The day itself would also prove to be a pivotal moment that changed the trajectory of the movement and would lead to the end of segregation.
“The most important lesson I have learned in the fifty years I have spent working toward the building of a better world,” Lewis wrote, “is that the true work of social transformation starts within… more than any other thing, the struggle within the human consciousness to believe and accept what is true.”
The Stoic philosopher Epictetus would teach his students that one of the greatest paths to freedom, one of the surefire ways to find fulfillment and be content, was to understand the judgments we were making at any given time.
Value-judgments are not facts, they are emotionally weighted opinions we place on events. Often times, and without our knowing, these judgements are created due to our culture, upbringing, habits, or past experiences. As we go about life, we add a value-judgment to it and that forms the basis for how we approach it in the future. Facts, on the other hand, are things that have a truth to them, something others too agree to be truthful and are built by evidence.
For example, if you’re driving to work and the freeway is gridlocked and you exclaim, ‘this traffic is going nowhere’, that’s a fact. But if you were to say, ‘the day is ruined because I can’t get anywhere’, that’s a value-judgment, your opinion of the matter.
Our life takes on the shapes and themes of the value-judgments we project on the world. As Marcus Aurelius reminded himself:
“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”
In cognitive-behavioral therapy, one is taught about reframing their thoughts by evaluating their value-judgments and attempting to see the truth rather than the judgment.
These adjustments come from paying attention. We need to be aware of what we’re saying, both externally and internally. There are always facts, but on top of those facts are the judgments we lay. We need to pull back the layer of judgment and be able to distinguish the two from one anther.
This is how we find true freedom and in turn fulfillment. It starts with paying attention.
When successful, people gain the ability to incredibly alter their lives by how they view it. Suddenly, a world that was always negative comes into clearer focus and there is realization that perhaps the world wasn’t so negative after all.
This is what Lewis knew. He knew that it was up to him to create his own freedom. He wrote that “We were born into the unfair circumstances that most people find themselves facing only temporarily.”
Yet he and many others overcame this by focusing on what they could control, constantly evaluating the power they gave others over themselves until finally, “I can truthfully say I was not afraid. I knew by that time that no one had the power to injure me. I had taken that power away by experiencing the worst they could do and discovering it did not diminish me; it did not harm me; it set me free and moved my soul beyond the fear of death.”
This week, we’ve partnered with Yale University Press and author
to bring you a chance to win a free copy of the audio version of Marcus Aurelius: The Stoic Emperor, part of their Ancient Lives series.In order to have a chance to win, follow
and click the share button below to forward this to someone who’d benefit from it.Winners will be announced next week.
3-Bullet Summary:
Value-Judgments are not facts but rather are opinions we place on events based upon our past experiences and emotions;
Value-Judgments can be manipulated. By properly focusing on the judgment one is making, they can begin to see where the judgments differs from fact and correct their thought process;
Freedom and in turn fulfillment come from our internal states, the ability to relinquish the value-judgments we hold over ourselves.
Until next week,
D.A. DiGerolamo
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