I am not a judge

Brian Kent
22 min readOct 28, 2021

(But I would say that Morgan Freeman would probably say something like, “it’s the magic of risking everything for a dream no one can see but you.”

I am not a judge, and I daresay I will not presume to talk as if I know what the actual law firmly or finally (or both) states about this — because I really don’t know. However, I will still talk as my ability to perceive what I see to be fair encourages me to talk (that is, taking the posture of one who “feels as though he knows”) because there doesn’t strike me as another valid choice. And you can think or say (or both) that that last sentence is

“too long; too complex; wordy” because there are easier ways to say something other than what I said, which was there offered to brace the context of “I will say what I feel I must say” in a fashion other than to be interpreted in the I’ll say what I like fashion. In a polite fashion though ‘being overly specific’ is taken to quite rarely be the politer of the choices. Tone, though it cannot be the only thing, can make a great deal of difference.

If I am especially sensitive to this piece of writing’s difficulties I should at least insist on relating that

In other words, I am not “taking a tone” here with the purpose of being offensive. I am certainly not so dull as to do that with a judge of all people. I am not “telling a judge what is what” so to speak. I am simply expressing what I sincerely believe to be the case, that’s all.

This IS hard for me. Yesterday, for example, my day was atrocious. I simply don’t ‘get things’ in the same way other people do, and I really do try my utmost to be polite and respectful of others. I TRY. That IS my effort. And trying to be ‘as fair or as holy as possible’ is not at all the same as claiming to be fairer or ‘holier’ than thou — at least not as I see things. The attempt, however obvious, is not equivalently a claim for comparison. Thus we shouldn’t misinterpret an attempt to be utterly polite and specific as an attempt to be (more simply) rude by virtue of its ‘morbid’ length or specificity, because this is an example of where Occam’s razor simply does not apply.* Applying it gives us nothing more than a simpler explanation which carries the death payload of misunderstanding. It gives us a false opportunity to ‘return the favor’: to answer mistaken rudeness with actual rudeness. Which is nothing better than an eye for an eye rendering the world blind in yet another fashion. You can ask me to keep things brief and you can also rest…

Brian Kent

I’m a sustainability advocate working to promote proliferation and understanding of electric vehicles and photovoltaic technology. Please send your questions!