How to judge people.

The short answer to the question of how a person should be evaluated is that you just can't. A human being is not the same kind of object as a mango and even really horrible people can be capable of being in some sense great. Yet we really cannot help it. Modern society has a tendency to dictate whether we feel good about ourselves and who we should aspire to be like. At the moment, it seems the criteria for a good, successful, and happy person boil down to three things: how much money one has; how much sex one has; and how many friends one has. Although, for women there is in addition: how thin one is. In some ways, these are fine criteria. If one has money, one has not the need to worry about provenance. If one has sex, it indicates the presence of love and affection. If one has friends, one is ensconced in a collective that supports each member.

But lets face it, its hardly watertight. Poor people are often happy. Old people have celibate marriages but remain loving (Morrissey is celibate and seems... a bad example actually). You will on occasion find hermits in the Himalayas living happily in complete isolation. And my Mum seems quite happy despite being... on the measure towards rotund (sorry Mum). So I would suggest the following criteria if one is foolish enough as to gauge one person's life against another's: How early they get up; how nice they are to animals; and how often they apologise. But remember to take all three into account and not just one or two.

Think about it.