Daily Archives: June 18, 2005

Freewrite: Critic

Everyone wants to be a critic. Look at these morons on the left. Look at these morons on the right. I will use witty satire to prove my point, and my point is that they are wrong.

It is much easier to tear things down. There’s a certain glee in knocking it all down. The moment you take to demolish the card house seems to be infinitely more satisfying than the minutes/hours/eternity you spent painstakingly putting it together. The cards are so delicate. It takes a light touch to balance them, to make them lean together in a state of interdependence. It takes less effort to tear it down. A swipe. A kick. A simple blow. There are many methods to destroy a cardhouse. Perhaps, an infinite amount of methods, and it can certainly stretch one’s creativity.

The creativity used to build is a much more delicate creativity. The ability to envision not just a whole, but pieces. The ability to envision not just pieces, but a whole. The ability to synthesize, and to tear apart to understand, but without destruction. It is more strenuous and more difficult. Like constructing an essay, certain parts may be easy, but it’s hard to construct the whole. To transition, especially. Destruction cares not about transition. It is easy to criticize an essay. This is wrong, this is wrong, it’s easy to point this or that out. It is much harder to build.

Many people live their lives intent on destroying. But what use is this destruction if you’ve not your own alternative of what to build? Why replace a good/mediocre/horrible with nothing?

Why don’t you come up with your own idea? What would you suggest?

I can’t. It’s impossible to think of the best-case-scenario. The knock-your-socks off idea. The utopia.

Then, don’t give me a best. Give me a better.

Everyone wants to be a critic. What an ideal job: The destroyer.

For some reason, I value greater even the creator who fails.

Do not be afraid to fail. Your criticisms are worth nothing otherwise.

If you’re unsatisfied with the status quo: Don’t neglect your criticism. Don’t love it or leave it. Just don’t stop with destruction. You don’t have to give me a best, just give me a better.