Criticism has become a common tendency in the present times. Once a writer writes about his feelings or observations about the society in which he lives, he has to confront criticism. Though his writings are reflections of society, there are still critics to highlight the positive and negative aspects of his ideas.
Similarly, when politicians, religious preachers or scholars express their ideas, they face criticism. There have been critics in every field of life and in every arena of knowledge from time immemorial, but the trend of criticism is growing every passing day. It has been observed that criticism is not always constructive, but some people criticize only for the sake of criticism.
Socrates once said that wise people criticize ideas while fools criticize people instead of their ideas. Constructive and positive criticism leads to reclamation and melioration but inexpedient criticism for the sake of criticism results in schism and conflicts. Constructive criticism results in creative ideas, but ineffectual and feckless criticism yields negative results.
As it has been said, nobody is perfect in this world, and every one among us possesses both good and bad qualities, so a critic should respect the personality of a person while criticizing his ideas. If the critic attacks a person’s personality instead of criticizing his wrong ideas, it would naturally lead to negativity in society.
Inexpedient criticism, intolerance and impatience are a few of the basic reasons for different political, social and religious conflicts in our societies. It has been observed that our political leaders, officers, religious leaders, teachers and even most individuals are involved in the habit of inexpedient, illogical and negative criticism, which has spread hatred, despair, malice and hostility in our societies.
The positive attitude of the critic will result in the positive reaction of the person who is being criticized or whose thoughts or ideas are being criticized, and it develops the culture of mutual understanding and tolerance in the society.
In the present times, the term criticism is supposed to signify and highlight only the negative aspects of phenomena, person or an idea, but in reality, it deals with accentuation of both positive as well as negative aspects.
Criticism has always challenged human creativity and has tried to keep its stance affirm and above all. It is agreeable to a sensible mind that creativity without criticism is not concrete and supposed to be conjectural. Creativity that doesn’t face criticism is supposed to be like a question mark in itself.
In simpler terms, it is the criticism that beautifies creativity. Once a creative mind faces criticism, it is ready to create new ideas to counter-attack the criticism, which is again criticized by critics, and the cycle goes on. In this way, more and more new ideas are created which benefit humanity in the long run.
Now a question arises that whom should we criticize and what are our standards for criticism. It is socially and morally impermissible to criticize negatively upon the ideas or personality of a person as it can undermine his dignity and honour and lead to his mental agony.
It is unbecoming of a good human being to criticize somebody only for his self-interests. So negative criticism for self-interests should always be avoided. People might have discordance between themselves regarding some issues, but it should never become a reason for negative criticism. We have no right to label the ideology or opinions of somebody in our society as wrong without rational and logical reasoning.
Naturally, every individual in this world thinks differently from every other individual, so it is not astonishing that opinions differ from person to person. Keeping this thing in view, wise people never dictate their opinions forcefully to others, nor they illogically criticize other people’s opinions. It should be borne in mind that whenever there is a lack of constructive criticism in a society, there will be a lack of creative minds in the society.
In modern times, constructive criticism works as a catalyst for creativity. Creativity has made it possible for human beings to cross all the barriers of ignorance and obliviousness and touch the skies of success. Creativity has enabled human minds to invent new gadgets, gizmos, scientific devices, and new ideas that have been very useful and beneficial to humankind.
Creativity has lead human societies to progress by leaps and bounds in the world of science and technology. In this way, this unending progressive journey of humankind is going on so that humankind can live a comfy, cosy and pleasant life. In a nutshell, constructive and positive criticism results in the overall development of human societies by boosting the creativity of its individuals, while inexpedient criticism leads to the destruction of humankind by spreading hatred and conflicts.
The author is a columnist and teaches Geography at GDC, Kulgam. He can be reached at rather1294@gmail.com