One of the fascinating things about criticism is how easy it is. Generally speaking, critics are people who are only good enough at an endeavor to find the flaws with what others are actually good enough to create. Because of this, critics also often lack the compassion that comes from having your own creative work criticized.
And one of the things I always worry about is the danger of people like me (who write op-eds, do talk shows, or even make jokes for a living) being so intent on finding the flaws in everyone else’s proposed solutions instead of offering our own solutions to the problems themselves. It’s all too easy to ridicule people or their ideas. Every second-grader has this talent.
Think of it this way. Hunting for stupidity will always be easy and superficially rewarding, whereas hunting for solutions will always be difficult. I’m not much of a hunter, but it seems that if you go out looking for ducks, you’re unlikely to come home with deer.
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