Hari's Corner

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Walk a mile in my shoes before you talk is not an answer to criticism

Filed under: People and society by Hari
Posted on Fri, Aug 12, 2016 at 22:00 IST (last updated: Fri, Aug 12, 2016 @ 22:00 IST)

Criticism comes in several flavours. As long as people have opinions and feel the need to express themselves, there will always be critics. And there are some people who make criticism their sole job. While criticism can be either positve or negative, constructive or destructive, it is still only worth the credibility of the critic. It is an unwritten rule that a professional critic who has deep knowledge of the subject of criticism is far more respected than the critc who criticizes casually without much thought process or just for the sake of cheap publicity.

However, no matter what the nature of criticism, asking the critic to prove their worth/expertise in the subject of criticism before being qualified to criticize is not a proper answer. It is only a defensive tactic. If every critic has to prove their worth, then there would be too few critics and not much of criticism at all. A lot of valid criticism would remain unwritten/unspoken.

After all, people employed in the press/media have to live and just as the average journalist cannot be an expert in every topic he covers, the average critic cannot be expected to be so knowledgeable as to understand the finer nuances of every subject/person he/she criticizes.

Though I feel strongly about critics sometimes, I still think that overblowing the role of the critic is simply giving more power to their words. By arguing against critics, one only gives more power to the critic. If one feels that a criticism is unjustified, invalid or plain malicious the best solution would be to address the specific points of criticism which require a reply (if possible) in a dignified way or simply ignore it.

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