As we set out to create things and do meaningful work, frequently we are fighting against resistance in all it’s many forms. Today I thought I’d share one of my favorite quotes on one aspect of this resistance, the resistance of the critical onlooker. Importantly this onlooker can be either a real person or an imagined, internalized voice that we create for ourselves. It’s from American president Theodore Roosevelt and comes from his speech ‘Citizenship In A Republic’, delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23 1910. The quote is justifiably famous, I’ll reproduce it here:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. ” – Theodore Roosevelt
The whole speech is pretty incredible and worth reading notwithstanding the brutally racist and colonialist context from which it arose, you can access it in pdf form here. Roosevelt is fierce and unsparing in his contempt for, as he says later in the speech “those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are.” Apparently the paralytic disease of sneering cynicism is a problem of the ages. Like Roosevelt, I have the lowest respect for those who criticize without doing, comfortable in their inaction, their refusal to take risk.
Fundamentally, risk is what this is about. To create something and say “Here, I made this” is a risk. To believe in something and to take a side is a risk. To fight for and try to create a better world is a risk. The risk is of our own disappointment, but also shame and ridicule in the eyes of the critics. Those who would go out on a limb and say “I believe this” risk being mocked or ostracized, or appearing foolish. As social animals this is a powerful fear, the fear of alienation, of being separated from the herd. This fear of being ostracized is deep and probably founded in a valid evolutionary basis, those who were forced out of the group did not live, much less procreate. So to risk being pushed out is a valid fear, and has real emotional and sometimes material consequences for us even now. The risk is real.
As is often the case where there is risk there is a possibility of reward. There is the possibility for growth and positive change. The sneering critic, the finger pointer, the knowing cynic has no possibility for growth. They uphold and enforce the status quo through their fear of being singled out, and they desire to infect us with that fear. The reason that the cynic wants the daring person to fail and feel ashamed is that by daring we shame them in comparison. Some of us may have experienced this as we grow and make change in our own lives. When you begin to change it can cause discomfort in the people who witness that change, as they feel that they suffer in comparison. I would say that as much as they dislike it we do them all a service by setting an example of what a person looks like when growing, struggling, failing and succeeding to become our best selves.
I would never claim that this is easy or straightforward or that I succeed often in living up to these ideals. What’s important for me is to choose a side. I am on the side of the people who try and fail, and I feel compassion and empathy with them. I will never point and laugh at a person who falls on their face while leaping towards their goals. I think that this is the least we can do, as we aspire to do and be more.
