"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."
... Nelle Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
Werner's work
doesn't require convincing. You don't
get it
that
way.
Now there's
nothing wrong
with good, convincing arguments and debates at the right
time
and in the right place - if for
nothing
else other than their elegance and entertainment value. However you
don't
gettransformation
by becoming convinced of its validity. You
gettransformation
by trying it on like a possibility. When it fits, you'll know -
without needing convincing.
Transformation,
with its full access to
who you are
(which is to say with its full access to the
authenticexpression
of
who you really
are),
has always been there in the
background
like a possibility.
Getting it
isn't like "OK, yes, very well said Sir, I do appreciate your
point,
jolly good
show,
what?!". Rather it's an "A-Ha!"moment of truth
which will knock you on your ass.
What's also
true
is it's embedded in the
nature
of
being human
to be hostile to
transformation.
We are, after all, most threatened by anything which impels us to give
up our
inauthenticities,
our games, and our
acts
(or at least to stop taking them seriously). Throughout history, many
of those who've brought
humanitypowerful
access to
transformation,
have been met with antagonism (you could say it goes with the
territory?).
Werner's work,
it's to be expected, also has its fair share of critics. And while it
seems that
getting
approval for what we do is central to
who we are
as
human beings,
the full
power
of
transformation
can best be seen not in a smart alecky response to its
critics, but rather in the willingness to give even its harshest
opponents a space, a platform to say whatever they want to say. Meeting
the attack may be an instinctive defense response. But it's not an
effective
way
of dealing with critics. The effective way to deal with critics is
giving them the space to be.
Outside of
Twitter
with it's novel one hundred and forty character maximum length posts,
there are any number of
online
outlets for
Werner Erhard's
friends,
as well as for his staunchest critics. Both
friends
and critics can of course
create
their own
websites
on which they can post volumes of material which seek to validate and
acknowledge or damage and discredit
the work of
transformation.
I'm often asked about the latter, especially when they throw people.
Here's the thing: they don't faze me - which is to say they don't faze
me any more (they used to faze me, but no
longer). Indeed I've often
wondered
whether or not their vitriol is really an inverse expression of their
love
and admiration. My experience is no longer fazed by
opinions,
and my experience is the domain in which
transformation
occurs. That said, it's always seemed to me that one of
Werner's
most outspoken and
committed
critics (I won't name him) really has a
personal
axe to grind with
Life itself,
and it's really whatever
Werner's work
represents for him, with which he has his disagreements - it's not
Werner's workper se (he didn't say that: it's just what I surmise). To
this end he's invested an enormous amount of
time
and effort collating arguments and
opinions
on his
websites
in support of his own
point of view,
and in making hostile comments and posts anywhere on the
internet
he finds an
opening
to do so.
That was all in the
background
as I waited for what would come up after entering
"Werner Erhard"
in the "Search
Twitter"
box and pressed [ENTER] for the first
time.
What came up, not surprisingly, were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of mentions of
Werner,
the vast majority of which were from people who recognize
Werner's
contribution.
There were also lesser amounts of mentions which were neutral in their
assessments. I read through pages and pages of them, scrolled through
screens and screens and screens of one hundred and forty characters or
less
tweets.
And then I saw him, the fiercest critic, his
photograph
clearly visible
next
to his
tweets.
His
tweet
was as virulent as all his utterances are, with two big differences:
one, he was constrained by
Twitter's
even-handed limit on everyone to say whatever they're want to say in
one hundred and forty characters or less; and two, his
tweet
was the only one attacking and attempting to discredit
Werner
in the midst of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
tweets
which, in one form or another, acknowledged the worth and value and
impact
Werner's work
has had in their lives.
He was there all alone, all by himself. He didn't have the plethora of
his
websites
and comment boards to fall back on. He didn't have his library of
collated material and litany of arguments to back him up. All he had
was his one hundred and forty character
tweet,
surrounded by hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people from all
walks
of life expressing the value they've
gotten
from
Werner's work
in their own one hundred and forty character
tweet.
In this
context,
he wasn't a critic: he was just another dude with his own one hundred
and forty character
opinion.
In this medium, he had no particular
power
- which is to say he had exactly the same amount of
power
as each and everyone else has on
Twitter.
And I thought to myself "Wow!
Twitterswallowed the critic!" (as easily and as effortlessly as
a blue whale swallows a krill). In this new
context,
in this new, digital
Twitterverse
his
opinion
is just one
opinion
among hundreds and hundreds and
millions
of peoples'
opinions,
all of which I have the
personal
space for. And that's when I really
got it
about him, arguably for the first
time:
the critic has an
opinion,
and
so what?!
Don't we all?
That's
howTwitter
has
created
a universe in which even our most virulent critics can be included in
the space of
who we really are.
And
listen:
it's being included that
enrolls
people. No arguments or debates (neither con nor pro) are necessary.
It's a thang about Life: Life really doesn't give a damn
about your
opinions.
Life doesn't give a damn about your
opinions
if they're favorable or if they're unfavorable. If you doubt this, go
outside on a
starry
night and tell the
stars
your
opinions.
Tell the
stars
what you don't like. Complain to the
starshow
you would have had
what happened
turn out differently than the way it turned out. Notice
how
the
starsreact.
Werner's work
generates
transformation
which is the space in which all people including the
opinionator
and the critic (both unfavorable and favorable)
show up.
And
Twitter
swallowed the critic. I'm not concerned for him. He'll get
used
to it.