| Being a big fan of the online message board/forum,
I've noticed that many places, when left to their own
devices, quickly fall into that stereotype of Internet
people- poor grammar, short and incoherent messages,
hideous spelling, and all other things like that. These
people don't really bother me; I just move to another
place that's moderated enough to avoid those kinds of
problems. The people that have me worried are of another
type entirely. These are the people that *do* type
("speak") properly, yet still cling to
heavy-handed criticism of things they don't like. Maybe its just being the target of some of these people, but I can't understand the people who critisize an artform instead of an artwork. This is art we're talking about- no art is inherently bad. Critisism of art needs to be focused on how well something achieves its purpose- not what its purpose is. When you criticise what something is trying to do instead of how well it's achieving it, then you open up an argument for the validification of censorship. Most everyone agrees that enforced cenorship is a bad idea. But it seems like very few of them actually stop to consider why that might be. The general attitude seems to be "Censorhip is wrong because everyone has the right to say what they want, even if it's not right." How does that make any sense at all? If something isn't right, then it's *not* right to let it go out in the world. Censorship is wrong because no matter what someone might say, an opinion is never wrong. Beliefs about facts, however, are a different matter. I've had people tell me the above can't be right because if someone says "The sky is green" when a quick look above shows a lovely pale blue, that person isn't right. That's a correct statement- except that whoever claimed a green sky wasn't expressing an opinion. They were expressing a belief regarding a fact. I've taken flak for this view on criticism before. I can deal with that. I'm always willing to belive I'm wrong. I will never simply disregard a coherent and logical argument. But I really don't believe that I am in this case. This is the only thing I can find that really makes sense when you consider how differently some people view works of art. I hold it as self-evident that nothing *starts* as worthless- it can only become so. Love to all- Liokae. |