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"What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism." ~ G. K. Chesterton
by recursivedoubts 5y ago
"What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism." ~ G. K. Chesterton
- philosopher1234 5y agoExtremely self critical people can be extremely hateful. Its hard to keep self criticism contained to the self. And if you're already self critical, its hard to handle others criticism of you.
- _moof 5y agoThere are two kinds of criticism: the kind that seeks to tear down, and the kind that seeks to build up. When people talk about being "self-critical" it's usually the tear-down kind, or what therapists call negative self-talk. I think in this case though it's being used as an antonym for arrogance.
- jimkleiber 5y ago+5. I wanted to +1 but I really liked what you said. Someone said to me the other day they were afraid to tell me how they speak to themself and much they hate themself. I'm getting much better at recognizing when someone says something to me about my life and it pisses me off, it's often because I've been saying that same thing to myself 10x. "You should just get a stable job" when someone else says that, I get angry at them saying it, only to (hopefully sooner rather than later) realize "ah it's because I've already heard that message 10 times today in my own head."
- recursivedoubts 5y agoSelf-hatred and self-criticism are separate things: the former an emotion the latter a rational process. We live in an emotional age and thus it is easy to conflate the two. But they are different.
- jimkleiber 5y agoPersonally I don't believe "self-criticism" and "self-hatred" are mutually exclusive, just as I don't believe emotion and rationality are mutually exclusive...but perhaps you do, and that's OK.
- ScoobleDoodle 5y agoI think they meant they are distinct. Not that they are mutually exclusive. Not necessarily orthogonal, but the idea is along the similar lines.
- jimkleiber 5y agoHaha I mean, yeah, at some point language abstracts and becomes more and more imprecise. Do I believe they're distinct? Sure. I think they can also blend together in one person and also that one person's self-hatred could be another's self-criticism. I could see it as a mutually agreed upon spectrum from self-hatred to self-love with different steps between, I could see self-criticism and self-hatred as separate, where criticism focuses on the actions and hatred on the person, I could see self-criticism as compared to self-curiosity, which may have an axis of certainty, from certain to uncertain and wanting to know. I often talk of critical vs curious vs connected, where curious is I don't know but I want to know, critical is I don't know and I need to know, and connected is I don't know and I don't need to know. But critical could also be I know vis-a-vis the others. But I don't know if these are necessarily true and universal and objective, but rather linguistic tools I've found to help me. I think there's a certain subjectivity to many of these things and I notice I have somewhat of a knee-jerk reaction when I hear someone ascribe an objectivity to something I believe has much more subjectivity.
- recursivedoubts 5y agoself-criticism can cause self-hatred (appropriate or not) milk can cause a sour stomach milk is not a sour stomach
- recursivedoubts 5y agoBroadly, I don't notice a surfeit of self-criticism in today's world.