Those who say that all historical accounts are ideological constructs (which is one version of the idea that there is really no historical truth) rely on some story which must itself claim historical truth. They show that supposedly ‘objective’ historians have tendentiously told their stories from some particular perspective; they describe, for example, the biases that have gone into constructing various histories of the United States. Such an account, as a particular piece of history, may very well be true, but truth is a virtue that is embarrassingly unhelpful to a critic who wants not just to unmask past historians of America but to tell us that at the end of the line there is no historical truth. It is remarkable how complacent some ‘deconstructive’ histories are about the status of the history that they deploy themselves. Bernard Williams, Truth and Truthfulness, 2002
A further turn is to be found in some ‘unmasking’ accounts of natural science, which aim to show that its pretensions to deliver the truth are unfounded, because of social forces that control its activities. Unlike the case of history, these do not use truths of the same kind; they do not apply science to the criticism of science. They apply the social sciences, and typically depend on the remarkable assumption that the sociology of knowledge is in a better position to deliver truth about science than science is to deliver truth about the world. ibid.
With his poor childhood development record, even minor criticism would be experienced as a wound by Mugabe. He is a person who cannot tolerate difference. Being profoundly doubtful about himself, he is oversensitive to the idea that he is not as good as everyone else. People are either with him or against him. Differences of opinion are provocative and hurtful to Mugabe, who may think that compromise reduces him. The closer a compromise comes to his emotional self, the more he resists it. Heidi Holland, Dinner with Mugabe
Literary criticism, now almost entirely confined to the universities, thus moves against talent by moving against the canon. Academic preferment will not come from a respectful study of Wordsworth’s poetics; it will come from a challenging study of his politics – his attitude to the poor, say, or his unconscious ‘valorization’ of Napoleon; and it will come still faster if you ignore Wordsworth and elevate some (justly) neglected contemporary, by which process the canon may be quietly and steadily sapped. Martin Amis, The War Against Cliché
Critics are the only people left I’ve heard use the phrase He’s a threat. I didn’t. The President didn’t. Donald Rumsfeld
The patriotic thing to do is to critique my country. How else do you make a country better but by pointing out its flaws? Bill Maher
As an inveterate film fan, I turn to the listings every week and try not to lose hope. I search the guff that often passes for previews, and I queue for a ticket with that flicker of excitement reminiscent of matinees in art deco splendour. Once inside, lights down, beer in hand, hope recedes as the minutes pass. How many times have I done a runner? There is a cinema I go to that refunds your money if you’re out the door within 20 minutes of the opening titles. The people there have knowing looks. My personal best is less than five minutes of the awful Moulin Rouge.
The other day, I saw Blue Jasmine, written and directed by Woody Allen. The critics applause was thunderous. ‘A work of brilliance’ ... ‘Pure movie-going pleasure’ ... ‘Smart, sophisticated and hugely enjoyable’ ... ‘Brilliantly funny’. One journalist called it a ‘miracle’. So I queued for a ticket, even conjuring the wonderful scene from Annie Hall (1975) when Woody Allen, standing in a movie queue, meets his hero, Marshall Mcluhan: he of ‘the medium is the message’.
Today, he might as well call up Hans Christian Anderson’s parable about a naked emperor, which applies to his latest ‘work of brilliance’. By any fair and reasonable measure, it is crap. Every character is cardboard. The schematic ‘plot’ is crude. Two adopted sisters are thrown together, implausibly. There is a wannabee politician whose name should be Congressman Stereotype. The script is lazy, dated and patronising. Clearly, Allen wrote it during a night sweat. ‘If Cate Blanchett doesn’t receive an Oscar nomination’, wrote The Times critic, ‘then I will eat a Chanel hat.’ Actually, Blanchett deserves a Lifeboat medal. By sheer dint of her acting, she tries and ails to rescue this wreck.
PR has subverted much of our lives, making unconscious acolytes of those who once might have operated outside the pack. The drumbeat of crap movies with big promotional budgets, mostly from the US, is incessant. The US market share of cinema box-office takings in Britain is more than 70 per cent; the small UK share is mainly for US co-productions. Films from Europe and the rest of the world account for a tiny fraction. Ironically, in the US, quality film-making has absconded to television.
The hype of public relations – Edward Bernays’ euphemism for propaganda – is now regarded as truth. The medium has become the message. John Pilger, article October 2013, ‘Why Bad Movies Keep Coming Out and What to Do About It’
The movies are like a machine that generates empathy. Life Itself, Ebert, 2014
I was born inside the movie of my life … I don’t remember how I got into the movie but it continues to entertain me. ibid.
The blood is on so many hands that history will weep in the telling. ibid.
My blog became my voice, my outlet. ibid.
Kael’s influence shaped how critics looked at movies and how people read them. ibid.
Scum Nazi filth trash garbage maggots. The Alex Jones Deception, 2017
Stop being weak! ibid.
People who practise this kind of broadcasting and claim to be an American patriot do nothing but discredit all of us eventually; it’s wrong. ibid. Bill Cooper
Get into gold today, folks. ibid. Alex
The government is gang-raping us. ibid.
Bernie Sanders is as dumb as a steaming pile of dog crap. ibid.
I’m ready to die for Trump. ibid.
What they’re condemning is critics; they’re saying critics shouldn’t be allowed to raise questions. The reason? We have to silence criticism because everyone has to line up and sing hosannas to our leaders. That’s the job of intellectuals: round up the chorus so they all sing praises to your leaders while they march in the parade and tell you how magnificent we are. Noam Chomsky, ‘On Power, Dissent & Racism’, Youtube 59.53
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. Whenever you feel like criticising anyone, he told me, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages you had. The Great Gatsby 1974 starring & Robert Redford & Mia Farrow & Bruce Dern & Sam Waterston & Karen Black & Scott Wilson & Lois Chiles & Edward Herrmann & Howard da Silva & Kathryn Leigh Scott & Regina Baff et al, director Jack Clayton, opening commentary
Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone ... just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had. F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Mexico is the perfect dictatorship. It’s a camouflaged dictatorship. But if you dig deed, it does have all elements of dictatorship … permanence. Not of a man but of a party. An undefeatable party that allows enough space for criticism, as long as it’s the useful kind that makes it look democratic. However, it suppresses all criticism that threatens its permanence. Mario Vagas Llosa, premio nobel de literatura
Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. George Macaulay Trevelyan