The Double Edged Sword of Creativity and Talent

We debated on what to call this entry, which is more a mini-rant than anything. Ranting doesn't sound negative, does it? It's more like an opinion, we suppose, as is anything we ever write here that's not completely about our life. Second pick to the title chosen was "Everyone's A Critic, But Some Are Just Critical"

Either way, our entry today touches on bullying behaviors of people in public forums (social media, public comment boards, etc.), people who try to stifle the creativity of talented and/or creative individuals on the internet, safely behind their crusty computer monitors.

In the world of the internet (it is a world inside a world) people like criticize those who blog ("Nobody reads blogs", "I was going to start a blog and then I remembered I have a life", etc.), they like to look down on people who share their lives, have an opinion they want to communicate, people who use poetry, art, writing, music, pictures, words, to reach out to the world, help others, find solace and/or express themselves via the internet. They get labeled narcissist, full of themselves, or self-entitled. People throw around these words as if they know what they mean, but their very behavior reflects their own narcissism, and perhaps their jealousy. Those who can, do. Those who can't, criticize like a petty asshole.

Write about your life, and offer it up for free, and all of a sudden you're an attention seeker, a narcissist, silly...get a book published about your life and you're an author with an autobiography, someone to be appreciated or celebrated (or memoir..."memoir is a good name to call your autobiography if you want to let people know you're a douche"). It's unlikely published authors would be respected by the people who put down those who have a drive to write anyway. Don't listen to them.

A person 'gives away' talent, art, writing, music, their skills and they're considered nothing but silly or self-involved (unless you are the receiver of the 'service' of course); get paid to provide and create the exact same thing and they're a sellout; at least by people who are jealous, for whatever reason - lack of talent and ability, and being bitter about it, come to mind. For instance, when it comes to music you only need see the indie band who gets their song in a commercial, and goes from indie to mainstream, and hear/see the words 'sell-out' reverberated through music forums. It's a double edged sword. You're a whore if you do, you're a whore if you don't.

When some people read comments written in an open forum (such as places like Twitter, Facebook, etc.) that make it seem a negative, or a needy thing, to share ones life with others; the person saying those things is only stifling the creativity, and introducing needless doubt into the mind of the creative person, all because they feel threatened, jealous or angry about something, or they don't understand. Every time a person criticizes another based on everything but their talent and ability, their jealousy shows, they look petty and bitter (to us, anyway) - why else would one person criticize another? To what end? To make themselves feel better? That, is just a form of bullying, it's not being a critic of the art/talent, it's being critical of the person. If you don't know someone you really shouldn't be critical of them as a person.

We have felt this suffocation of expression, as we are sure others who write, create art, put themselves out there do, and luckily each time we feel it, and try to convince each other we should throw in the towel, stop writing publicly, we receive a DM, and e-mail, and @ message from someone saying how this blog has helped them in some way. So, we keep going. Until we have nothing more to say (it'll happen...one day) ...though that doesn't stop most people. (As of February 16, 2011 there were 156 million blogs in existence, no word on the levels of activity, however.)

We may not all be nice (we're not all nice, even to each other), some of us could care less about people (some of us hate people), and helping them (we're tired of helping people_ - this blog is for us first off - but some of us want to reach out a hand to people (some of us love people, and care a great deal for some of them) who are sinking in the quicksand of mental illness (because we realize what alone feels like, even though we are never alone).

This post is more about respect than anything. Respect people who take a chance, who leap, put themselves out there. Don't make it more dangerous than it already is. Leave your sword at home.

If you've ever felt dejected, discouraged, apprehensive to write based on what you've read or have heard others say/write, just remember, everyone is entitled to express themselves, everyone has a voice, and if you can and want to, share it, write it, let it out...someone will want to listen/read it. It's how the gaps in the world are closed.


~Ivy et al

(Note, all "quotes" are sentiment gleaned from the wonderful world of Twitter...where there is no shortness of bullying.)

[Have you been reading the series of our life/lives?  We just posted the 10th chapter..."It Spins Madly".]