The trouble with political works that advocate a specific message (such as documentaries and certain non-fiction books) is that you know, just from reading reviews or even the book jacket, whether you agree with it and will want to check it out. So I wonder whether these things ever make anyone think, or are just preaching to the choir.
Nonetheless, this caught my eye. “Snark”, by the film critic David Denby, apparently argues that the no-standards world of the Internet has made it cool to be an asshole.
Personally, I wouldn’t blame the Internet. It’s been cool to be an asshole since at least 1990. Somehow my generation latched onto the immature high school attitude that it’s always smarter to hate things, and that only the lame or gullible ever actually like something (unless it celebrates hatred and being an asshole). And so the gossipers – people who only know how to talk and complain – have been attacking actual achievers ever since.
People who make fun of movies, music and TV are not superior to people who actually know how to make a movie, form a band, or produce a TV show. People who hate our political system, but have never so much as volunteered for anything, are not superior to those who successfully campaign to get themselves elected to high office.
It’s easy to complain, but actions speak louder than words … at least to people who aren’t assholes.
