How Should We Judge People Today?

In the modern world, history plays an important role in whether we like someone, or hate someone. For example, we tend to prefer to be with people who we have never been at war against. We seem to have a subconscious desire to not be with people are ancestors or even grandparents have opposed.

However, I believe that the current generation should not hold the burden of the past. I believe that the current generation has no reason to be held responsible for what their ancestors did. For example, some Chinese ignore and detest the Japanese because of their actions in World War 2. This is unfair, because those Japanese might feel that their country's actions in WW2 were wrong. Just because they were Japanese, we think that these people are harmful to us and should be ignored.

On the other hand, I believe that the above is not ALWAYS true. Sometimes, if you meet an extremist, like someone who still strongly supports imperial Japan, I would still try not to get overly friendly with the person, just in case they hate you.

However, without a doubt, it is unfair that the current generation have to bear the consequences of the bad their ancestors have done. It is without a doubt unfair to blame someone for war crimes committed by their ancestors decades or even centuries ago.

I strongly believe that we should not let people, if they don't support or agree with the wrongs that their ancestors did to our society, we should not give them the blame, and instead, find ways to help them thrive in an unforgiving society.