Judging people

Never judge a book by its cover.

The "wise" adage has always baffled me.I used to think that it meant that you could find treasures beneath the creepiest most disgusting looking grime.It didn't really strike me that it could work both ways until I was about 8/9 I think.That some exteriors never match the interior.
But as I grew older I started to realize that maybe this proverb is rather irrelevant when applied to people.Especially in an age where people idolize celebrities, not humanitarians.Where everybody eagerly snaps up the latest URTV*,but nobody reads Dickens or Hugo or Poe.

how many of you know how Gandhi died?
how many of you can name atleast 5 works of Charles Dickens?or Poe?

Catch my drift?
It might be wrong to entirely judge someone based on how they are dressed,what they listen to and etc. Practically everybody is screaming "It is my individual right," whenever they get the chance. Just think about it for a second.
Sure,it is your right as an individual to be able to dress,say or like what you want.But isn't it all also a reflection of ourselves?How can you say that listening to Britney/Metallica/Norah Jones does necessarily make them a part of your identity?
Because it does.
You can offer any reason in the world but it still does.
You can't really just like music for music because you should feel somewhat connected to the lyrics,or tune or maybe even the artist.
It maybe how you are feeling some days,it may be how you have felt all your life.If you did like music for music you would listen to every song in the world and like it no matter what.
Which does not really make sense to me.

And how can you not judge someone based on what they say or think?
If you said it,then you thought it.
Thought governs every aspect of our lives.You have to think to decide what to eat,you think of what to put as your nickname,you think of what to put on your playlist don't you?
So do you really really need to know a person before you can judge them?
Is it not fair if people judge you just like that?
Take a reality check.
Everybody judges everybody.Everybody sizes up the man/woman next to him/her and wonder what their story is.
Maybe we do it to make ourselves feel better.
Maybe we do it because there is a need to justify how others act.
Maybe we do it because we're all human.

I hate to say this but I think it is undeniably true.We all label people.It maybe names,racial slurrs,high-school hierarchy or even categories we make up on our own.
Yours truly is truly guilty of the latter.Heh
What separates the ignorant from the enlightened are those who think it but still treat them as they would anybody else.

I don't really believe people when they say they do not care what other people think of them.
If it was truly possible we would probably never had evolved from the Stone Age.Nobody would have bothered to better themselves.
Which probably explains why pride is the Devil's favourite sin.

Sure, there might be times where people can surprise you,think Ted Bundy but as far as the general public goes,I have seen no exceptions.=)
And it is just my opinion,you know.

*Nothing against URTV.I would have put CLEO or any other zine but I do think they have book review sections.I am pretty sure that is not the case for URTV.And Mangga.
Fyi, I don't care if people don't like me for reasons that is true.But I do CARE what others think of me.It is not the same thing and I am not contradicting myself.Huhu