From a distance, a critic looks equal to a producer. But it’s not the same. Critique can be helpful, especially when it comes from someone who has also produced, and fought similar battles.
The lowest form of critique, one popular today but that we should avoid at all costs, is mockery. It is reserved for the intellectually lazy.
“Mockery is often the result of a poverty of wit”
Jean de la Bruyere
It adds nothing, and it destroys much. Perhaps the worst thing about mockery is the self-satisfaction it gives the one who delivers it. You feel good while mocking another, but you are damaging your own self. No one likes a mocker, and many people fear them, so you are slowly isolating and marginalizing yourself.
Are you ever tempted to mock or make fun of the work of others? Are there good points to mockery? Let me know what you think.
David Curry
