Bhupa P. Dhamala

Criticisms are to ideas like knives are to onions. Just as onions can be edible only when they are cut with knives, so also ideas can be useful only when they are sharpened with criticism. History of ideas has shown that the more things are discussed with reason and wisdom, the better solutions are reached. Progressive ideas that come out of adequate criticisms and discussions have contributed to the evolution of advanced society. But orthodox ideas rooted in superstitions have pushed the society backwards. It is thus evident that criticism is essential to make things lively and useful to life.

Criticism as Knife
Onions are edible if they are cut with care. Likewise, ideas are useful when they are sharpened with wise criticism. But when these acts are done haphazardly, they may go awry and lead to disaster. Passing judgments on things, events, and persons are one of the most important fields where critical knives are used. People would like to use those knives to criticize other people’s ideas. While so doing, they pleasingly use polite words. They only hit the follies and foibles of issues intending to correct mistakes. Some people even develop rhetoric, the art of speaking, to criticize because it has more illocutionary force to make an impact on the mind of listeners. This is an indirect way of criticizing something without hurting the speaker’s feelings. To criticize with an open heart and without ulterior motive is desirable. It is in this sense that being critical is safe.

Menace of Misfire
Useful though knives are in practical life, they might as well be dangero us if we don’t handle them skillfully. We can extend this metaphor to explain other cases too. Electricity can be a useful tool if handled skillfully but it can also be a dangerous enemy if handled haphazardly. Likewise, nuclear power can be useful to life but it can also devastate the whole of humanity in a twinkling of an eye. If an arrow is aimed with a focus, it can hit the target. But if it goes awry, it misfires or even backfires. One of the most devastating examples can be seen in the instances of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan where the nuclear bombs mishit the beautiful human civilization. No other instances should be sought to indicate the misfires of human invention that could otherwise be used for the welfare of mankind. In this respect, being uncritical is dangerous.

Attitudes to Criticism
We may have some misconceptions about criticism: to appreciate is to be positive; to criticize is to be negative. Criticism has thus negative connotations too. While criticizing, some people may use derogatory terms to abuse the people they don’t like. They are scared of criticism because they think this is against their prestige. They think criticism is a form of stigma which damages their reputation. Those who are criticized take it negatively and sometimes they even like to take revenge as well. Then they begin to counterattack an irrational way. When some people use abusive words to criticize others, this is menacing. We can call them barbarous, under-civilized and pointless. This can happen among the uneducated people. But when it comes to the advanced society, this type of criticism is damaging. In contemporary Nepalese politics, for example, we can see political actors using derogatory terms to abuse each other. They are using the critical knives indiscriminately in a fashion of upmanship.

Being Uncritical
Innocent people may not understand how language can be used both to expose and hide things. While some people would like to speak the truth, others are habitual liars, swindlers, and cheat who would like to deceive others for their personal gain. But the innocent people would not understand what the speakers mean because linguistic structures cannot represent all that the speakers mean. They have two levels of meaning – surface meaning and underlying meaning. This is why innocent people are forced to follow what the speakers say being uncritical.
There are many instances of being uncritical. When Aristotle said that women had fewer teeth than men, the general people believed in his words without verifying the statement by counting the teeth of even their own wives. Many people until late believed that the earth was flat. When Galileo discovered the telescope, he could see that the earth is round. Likewise, the blind followers of religion follow religious dogma uncritically.
They opposed to what Charles Darwin wrote in The Origin of Species after the scientific research of 20 years. Some people also tend to follow superstitions which sometimes lead them to disasters. We have seen many people practising in sorcery and witchcraft which are not founded on any scientific basis. This is how some people are uncritical.

Underlying Danger
As a matter of fact, being critical is a positive action that helps correct one’s mistakes. To criticize others with reason and wisdom is desirable. But being uncritical can be dangerous at some point of time in life. We have seen many people suffering in life due to the false consciousness that they develop from the unscientific belief that they blindly stick to. The danger lies underneath, which cannot be seen when being uncritical.
Needless to reiterate, the low-ranking leaders and cadres of the ruling party in Nepal are uncritical apparently following what their respective faction leaders say without digging beneath the surface in what they say. In most of the cases, they are not criticizing the things that are done or the statements that are made. In some cases, their arguments are fallacious and ridiculous. If they continue to follow in the way they are doing now, they might fall into their own quagmire which they themselves have made without knowing.

(The author is a retired professor of English, TU)