Do We Tend to Criticize Behavior that We are Likely to Do Ourselves?

[SilentMute]

Have you ever looked out a window and seen a neighbor on a ladder, painting his house during a rainstorm? I have. When I saw this, my first thought was, "God! What a dumba**! What type of moron paints their house in the rain?"

I'm currently re-painting my mom's car...a project that I'm rather excited about and enjoy doing. The weather lately has been overcast, which I find rather difficult to read. Overcast can promise rain, but sometimes it just sits there, looks gloomy, and does nothing. So, I was out painting the car when a few sprinkles started to fall. I wasn't going to let a few sprinkles stop me. I figured it would stop soon enough. The sprinkles became a little heavier. I sat on the porch to wait it out, but I was determined to finish the fourth coat that day. Mother Nature was just going to have to put off the rainstorm and just let me finish...and let the paint dry. Sometimes the weather cleared, but every time I moved towards the car, it would sprinkle again. I felt persecuted. Finally my mom said, "Will just get in here!"

The car now has freckles from the raindrops, so I'm going to have to sand and re-paint. Silentmute went against the weather, and the weather won. I have just created more work for myself and wasted paint. I was the moronic dumba**. It made me think I really need to stop criticizing people, because every time I do, I wind up doing the same thing in the future.

Is this some weird form of karmic justice, or do we just criticize others for behaviors we know we instinctively would do?

[cacian]

I have to admit I do not call it criticism but just a reaction to seeing something that appears wrong on impulse.
It is however difficult to read ourselves since we cannot see us face to face. Therefore to point something out as being right or wrong to others is natural since we can see them and their actions clearly.:)

[cafolini]

Yes. I no longer do that and haven't done for a long time. But the part "or we have?" makes me say a definite YES. It's a childish behaviour. However, it is just as childish to see it and say nothing about it. I wouldn't call saying something about it criticism. I would today call it "helping people get their head out of their arce."

[Sancho]

Uh Oh, better get Maaco.

That's an interesting notion: "karmic justice". And I'm intuitively thinking that life probably does work that way. I'll be on guard.

I've found a similar condition to be the case with me. That is, if I've beaten a certain habit, I tend to criticize people who are still burdened by it. For instance, I love to scoff at the people in the Krispy-Kreme donut shop as I walk by. You know, until I lapse and find myself back in there again.

[Helga]

I have done this more than once, in some cases I try to break the habit that annoys me in others but sometimes I justify it by simply saying 'It's different cause it's not me'!