The School Of Hard Knocks

On p.27 of Annals Australiasia (July 2005), there is a quote from Abinger Harvest by E.M.Forster:

The Englishman's attitude towards criticism will give us another starting-point. He is not annoyed by criticism. He listens or not as the case may be, smiles and passes on, saying, 'Oh, the fellow's Jealous'; 'Oh, I'm used to be Bernard Shaw; monkey tricks don't hurt me.' It never occurs to him that the fellow be accurate as well as jealous, and that he might do well to take the criticism to heart and profit by it. It never strikes him - except as a form of words - that he is capable of improvements; his self-complacency is abysmal. Other nations, both Oriental and European, have an uneasy feeling that they are not quite perfect. In consequence, they resent criticism. It hurts them; and their snappy answers often mask a determination to improve themselves. Not so the Englishman. He has no uneasy feeling. Let the critics bark. And the 'tolerant humourous attitude' with which he confronts them is not really tolerant, because it is insensitive, and not really humourous, because it is bounded by the titter and the guffaw.

Emphasis Mine

This long quote brings to mind my long absence from blogging. A certain person has criticised me for many things (they are among the comment section of this blog). I have been reflecting on these criticisms by trying to find a basis for them. My conclusion is that my writing is not clear enough to overcome the ideological blindness of certain readers. I shall not be responding to these criticisms directly but I shall endeavour to improve the clarity of my writing.

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