Bring on your critics
The lexical field of the word ‘critic’ has taken a dark turn. Your colleague is being criticized, you are accused of being critical, your sister needs to deal with this burning critical issue... None of this bodes well. However, originally, “to issue a critic” was meant to qualify the fact of simply sharing an opinion. Now a critic is someone who finds fault in some work. We converted feedback into something automatically negative.
Indirectly, I believe it affects the value of what we call “critical spirit”, when it is probably the most important currency we have in a time when fascism is progressing so fast...
Nowadays, being judgemental is considered a huge default. But we need critics of all sorts to progress professionally, politically, personally. I want my boss, my friends, even my partner to be critical! As long as it is done with tact and respect.
It is important from time to time to remember that we all have our own biases. And the more we go through life, the more we build up our own specific prism through which we judge life events. It takes a lot of conscious effort to try to overcome them and open up to different perspectives.
That’s why I don’t believe in journalism neutrality. It is a very nice invention, but unfortunately only wishful thinking, as we all humans, journalists included. But I believe in press independency. I believe in media literacy. I believe that we need to protect the diversity of opinions. I believe in sharing critics freely, because every thought is political, even our most intimate ones. And freedom and plurality work hand in hand, one cannot exist without the other. So let’s keep sharing critics, positive, negative, provocative ones, they make us rich.
