“Your forearms are weak.”
My gym trainer told me this last week, and since then, I have included a forearm session in my PPL split. All rainbows and sunshine; his criticism proved healthy and wanted. Soon, I will be Popeye!
Well, this is it, right? This is the key to becoming better. You are something; you get to know you aren’t enough, and you try to improve that thing within yourself professionally and personally. If we broaden the scale, that’s true for our civilisation. As the generations pass, we find ways to be more critical of our traditional ways and find our flaws.
So, criticism: 1, acceptance: 0?
If I had accepted my body weight 10 years ago (I was highly underweight) and told myself that I would never let society critique me, I would have never changed.
Do you wanna see how underweight I was? (Of course you do!) Have a look!
Yeah, to the right, with this plain and sexy body! Look at my pose, for God’s sake! And those expressions! OOOOH LALA!
Matchstick? Skeleton? Emaciated? Pole? I have heard it all.
So, it’s quite clear. Criticism is important for our personal growth. You might argue for me, saying, but that’s not the way to go. Taunting/bullying isn’t healthy criticism. People do terrible things to themselves to escape it. Point taken!
But at the same time, if I lived in a society where no one was allowed to comment on my weight and inform me that it was unhealthy, and if the media were judiciously woke and censored, then it’s highly likely that I would have never taken any action to address it. So, at least, we can agree on one thing. Criticism is important, but there is a way to let that seep in.
In this global bubbly era, when we are trying to protect ourselves and learn more about what’s happening in the world simultaneously, it’s important to find this delicate balance. And seeing that is the opposite of easy. Let me explain how with three factors that come to my mind:
The Social Media Era = Tribal Era
I have always hated groups and wanted to be a global citizen. Why can’t we all hug each other, start dancing and running into the rain, and forget we were different?
Well, nope! That’s not how we work. People from the LGBT+ group would seek someone with similar experiences and feel more comfortable around them. A feminist needs another feminist to talk about how ugly this patriarchy is. We need to share our trivialities, sense of humour, pride, and belongingness.
We always end up making bubbles in order to thrive. A rightist would want to hear more opinions favouring his worldview and trolling the leftist one. And vice versa!
In your personal life, you wouldn’t want to break your tribe because of these shared values that others outside the group might not share.
Religion
It is one of the world's most unifying and dividing factors!
They have always been. They represent our shared vision of stories and the divine presence. We always end up making religions greater than us because they probably are. They hold a lot of history and stories that seem to never pass away. Their influence is so powerful that there is a word to describe that power: metaphysical.
Nationalism
Of course, the advent of the monarchy to nations has been an incredible achievement for society.
A person living in the UK would probably hold secular values as compared to someone from Afghanistan, believing in conservative values. A person in Russia is more likely to be a communist than one from the USA. They all hold pride bigger than themselves. Once again!
I dare you to criticise India while sitting at Wagah Border. When everyone around you is getting emotional while looking at their flag, I dare you to yell, “Pakistan Zindabad”. If you are on the other side of the border, yell the opposite!
I dare you to eat beef in a temple or pork in a mosque. Go and tell a fat woman in a pride campaign that she is morbidly obese, and being proud of that is equivalent to having a tumour and celebrating it. I dare you to talk about the theory of evolution in depth in a Protestant Church or a Mosque.
You would rather come out of the screen and kill me than become a subject of public wrath.
Because that’s not the way to criticise. That’s the way to commit suicide in this highly complicated world.
When does the beauty of criticism become ugly? Where do we draw the line when drawing “Freedom of speech?” How do we become better and influence this society in a way that respects it? Individualism? Nationalism? Globalism? Conservatism? Liberalism? What do you support? What should you support?
We grow only by criticising the current systems within ourselves and around us. But this also leads to so much chaos. Think about the critiques of binary genders. You can create fire by playing with traditions that can disrupt a good and healthy system.
When does criticism go too far? What do you do when it goes that way? Criticising that criticism? And going further into its layers?
Yes, that’s exactly where I entered the world of debate. It’s endless! Knowledge is endless for our little brain. And here I am, starting today, coming up with bits and pieces of learnings that I have gathered along the way.
See you next Sunday!
