“Compliments and Criticism”
Lesson 1. A Student Essay.
I have always taken a compliment as a provocation, and criticism as a direct attack. Moreover, the first often precedes the second and can be seen as a simple ploy to mislead. When people compete with each other, the only reliable foundation for a relationship is indifference. I don’t mean depression, tiredness, or contempt for others. I mean the part of our nature that remains still and helps us remain ourselves, regardless of the likes and dislikes of others, and keep the space that separates us from each other.
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If two predators meet at the boundary between their territories, they don’t try to please or anger each other; they don’t click “Like” or “Dislike” in the local forest chat — they try to find a reason not to kill each other moments later. And this reason is a cool calculation with complete indifference to the fate of the other side. The coexistence of business competitors is usually a matter of mutual indifference, and only rarely does a conflict or friendship arise.
And if we rise to the level where “criticism” no longer means simply a clash of interests but refers instead to Kant’s Critiques, we will see that even there, as Marx put it, “the weapon of criticism cannot … replace criticism of the weapon; material force must be overthrown by material force.” And the only way to avoid using this force is to focus on one’s own field and to demonstrate indifference to others.
But humans are social animals, and your comparison with solitary predators is wrong, you may object. Yes, you are right. And that is precisely the primary role of compliments and criticism as social tools. No matter whether we are guarding our territory or searching for food, we must constantly call the roll: to tell our own from the rest and to bring back the lost members of the group. Or, to put it in the language of enlightened intellectuals, we should know who deserves our good old neighbourly care and who must strictly abide by our laws.
