Presuming Innocence

I think that one of the biggest “social” mistakes that I habitually make is when I am in the situation where I feel victimized by some transgressor and automatically bestow properties of malice, negligence, greed, or just plain meanness to the party in question. And there are people who fit these descriptions (and worse) in some of the things they’ve done, to be sure. But it does neither me nor anyone else any good to make a premature judgment about another, just because they are a party to a situation that has an unfavorable outcome for me (and sometimes I’m also in error in interpreting the outcome as being unfavorable).

There is a problem that can arise when different sources of distraction, none directly related to each other, come at me around the same time, creating a state of anxiety disproportionately higher than called for by its causes. The (wrong) tendency is for me to overemphasize then any negative reactions I have from any of the parties that I believe are imposing on me, instead of treating them in a more even-handed manner.

There are many types of scenarios in traffic in which suspending judgment, at least for a while, can save a driver a lot of anguish. There are many reasons people may drive too slow, too fast, in the wrong lane, or not move at all. And some of these reasons are legitimate (most of which I’ll never know), while virtually all of them really have nothing to do with me personally. Even when I discern that a driver is misbehaving on the road, it is pointless for me to get into a stew over it. All that would accomplish is impair my own driving!

An especially common and insidiously evil form of rushing to judgment instead of initially presuming innocence is that of prejudice (from “pre”, “judgment”), or bigotry. It’s very important that we avoid tainting our estimation of the degree of guilt of a suspected offending person on the basic of his or her demographic classification. Unfortunately, this appears to still be a pervasive problem that may be a remnant of the ancient times when people would band together in small tribes or other groups and regard everyone else as outsiders, and not worthy of the same rights and privileges as their members (including the right of due process, which includes the presumption of innocence, of course).

In any situation where there is a hierarchy of authority, the one who is “above” may not have everyone’s best interests under consideration when making decisions. Often, just talking with that person about it instead of expressing criticism (or condemnation) can diffuse a potentially bad outcome. The working relationship between the two parties can strengthen because of this, for even if the one in authority sticks with the unfavorable decision, mitigating reasons can be shared and a greater understanding achieved.

The bottom line is that there are many more great things that I can occupy my mind with than dwelling on who’s guilty of what. Projecting guilt on others as an act of habit only serves to bog down one’s thoughts. Getting over offenses releases oneself to be able to focus on what’s really important in life.