“Criticism Is Something You Can Easily Avoid-By Saying Nothing, Doing Nothing, And Being Nothing”
An incredibly true quote from Aristotle. Criticism is inescapable. And if you plan on doing anything of meaning in your life, you will inevitably face criticism. Some people like to claim that they withhold judgement, while others admit their judgement. Either way, we all judge others.
Judgement in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. As a society, there must be standards of behavior. Without standards, there would be no agreed upon values. We couldn’t have safe, stable lives. And judgement is one of the mechanisms of enforcing those standards. The desire to not be judged negatively can compel people to do the right thing.
But on the other hand, judgement is dished out to anyone who does something. No matter the issue, there are differing sides. And whichever side you don’t pick and act on will judge you. People will judge you for anything. From the serious, like political or religious views, to the trivial, like what type of music you like.
They’ll judge you for drinking, they’ll judge you for not drinking. People will judge you for how you dress, what you look like, how you raise your kids, and what you do in your free time. Why? Well, as noted before, there is a benefit to judgement. It enforces social norms and values. But, especially in today’s world, there’s much more to that.
We judge because we hope that other people think like us. When people do or say things that we do not agree with, we experience shock and disappointment. To mitigate against this, we judge. If someone is doing something we wouldn’t do, it must be because of a problem with them, not with us.
We also judge, because it’s much easier to judge than to actually do. Anyone can judge another person’s actions from the safety of not having to make the decision. But as Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.”
This applies to people who make tough decisions. It applies to groups of people and nations as well. The Europeans, who benefit from American Hegemony, are able to live in a peaceful world the US provided. Provided by the US making extremely difficult decisions in complicated circumstances.
They get to benefit from the world the US provided, without having to make the tough, often morally ambiguous decisions the US had to. As we see, when the US looks like they might pull back on world leadership, Europe panics. They realize that the US, the Man in the Arena, is important to their prosperity.
Judgement is often wrong, or from a place of insecurity. But with that said, that does not mean that you should simply ignore all judgement. Some judgement is valid. Taking in the opinions and perspectives of other people can make you a better person. Judgement can come from a good or a bad place. It can be helpful and hurtful. As has been mentioned, we as human beings are complicated in terms of our positives and negatives, and thus so is our judgement.
But it is true that criticism is so ingrained in how we interact, that the only way to escape it is not to be. That is what Aristotle meant when he said that to avoid criticism, one “must be nothing.” Being ourselves will come with criticism. What should we learn from this? Listen to other people’s perspectives, but don’t view criticism as intrinsically something negative about you. You face criticism? Congratulations, you are a human being and you are doing something.