"When the million applaud you, seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; when they censure you, what good!” - C.C. Colton

 "When the million applaud you, seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; when they censure you, what good!” - C.C. Colton (1780-1832). Lacoon: or, Many Things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think, 1.193,1823

Praise and blame are interesting things, because they may or may not be unearned, and may or may not lie. Just like people, the acclaim of the crowd and the cursing of the multitude upon you is not always because of what you have done, but because of what you have appeared to do. Praise and blame can be used to puff you up when you have done nothing to deserve it, to hide your failures behind a veneer of popularity, to defect fault form another and put it on you, or to point out a true failure of yours. We do not want to buy to much into the names that others call us, the positive or negative views of us and our actions that others have. The truest judge of our actions, their cause and purpose, if not their result, is us. Praise and blame, especially when it is from the crowd, should always be viewed with a jaundiced eye. We do not want to do what is merely popular, but what is truly good, what actually is effective, what really does change the world. We feel it is something to be ashamed of, to be fake. 

While the cheering and booing of the crowd is always suspect, the cheering and booing of private and individual people whom we know and trust contains a great deal more of value. This value comes from our belief in them, that they are good and wise people - if we believe them, these individuals whom we know, to be foolish or biased, then we do not trust their viewpoints either, even though we may feel for them. Indeed, in cases where the actual worth of someone's view of you is of dubious value, the most dangerous point of their goad to us is not that their view is valid, but that their view is strong. A father or a friend who we know is not reasonable about this or that issue might still be enough of an influence on us to change our minds, if our minds are not already strongly made up. The point of this quote is, I think, not that the cheers and guffaws of the crowd or of individuals even is always bad - it is that it is suspect, and you should be careful to question their claims, because the emotional and political burdon that their views place upon you might unduly influence you, and cause you to abandon your own stance. The opinions of others is often a sign, not necessarily of the specific worth or value of what you have done, but that there is some perceived emotional worth or value in having done it, so that a strong reaction is called for. But, as we all know, humans are prone to overreaction, both us and them. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“The highest art…sets down its creations and trusts in their magic, without fear of not being understood.” - Herman Hesse

  “The highest art…sets down its creations and trusts in their magic, without fear of not being understood.” - Herman Hesse (1877-1962). Reflections, 516, ed. Volker Michels, 1974 It is a terribly frightening thing, to send your art out into the world. Who are you to have created something which is worthy of remembrance, worthy of care, worthy of immortality? We are always afraid of two things when we show somebody our art - We have the fear that it will seem unremarkable, and we have the fear that it will be totally misunderstood. As regards the fear of our art being unremarkable, there is no sure way to tell that it is remarkable for other people except by showing it to them. The only way we can even begin to guess whether it will be so is by trusting in ourselves, and in our own sense of good and bad. We constantly alternate between being the most brutal and the most forgiving of our critics, for we may look on a doodle we dew or a poem we wrote in the middle of a rainstorm, o...
Read more

"Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced.” - H.L. Mencken

  "Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced.” - H.L. Mencken (1806-1956). In Christopher Matthews, Hardball: How Politics Is Played - Told by One Who Knows the Game, 2, 1988 When is it worth trying to convince someone, and when is it not worth the effort? It is perhaps too simple to say that this always depends on the odds of them being convinced, because it may be very important that they be convinced - Important enough that the odds don't matter, you still have to try. However, in some cases, this will never work. That is, if the person you are trying to convince has a vested interest in not being convinced, then it is very likely that you should not waste your time trying to convince him. Instead, you should aim to change his mind by some other means than argument. You may want to try and convince him not that you are right and he is wrong, but that he actually has a vested interest in holding to your view. You may try and direct him to do what you ...
Read more

“An army, like a serpent, travels on its belly.” - Frederick II

  “An army, like a serpent, travels on its belly.” - Frederick II (1712-1786). Attributed See Statesmen: B.H. Liddell Hart (2) An army travels in its belly. It runs on food, on supplies, on oil and blood. It runs itself into the ground, it runs itself ragged, it runs itself into a state of dire need for repair, simply by the regular maintenance of its machines, the standard training it needs, and the slow drip of experience caused by the old and wise constantly leaving, while the young and foolish are always entering. Battles, battles are won by the courage of the people who fight them, the advantages in technology and Intel one side has over the other, and by clever and quick commanders. However, one of the most important lessons of War comes to us out of antiquity, by way of our phrase 'A Pyrrhic Victory' - This event is named after king Pyrrus, an ancient king of Epirus in Greece, who won a great victory - and lost a war, because he paid too terrible a price for his win, a...
Read more