As much as I enjoy Loren Feldman’s work I think I enjoy people’s reactions even more.  Or at very least am more fascinated by them.  That came to mind when reading this rather glowing piece entitled “Loren Feldman is the jester in the court of web 2.0”.  In it Tom Foremski lays out why he enjoys the puppet shows (and other related antics) that come out of 1938 Media. 

But while I enjoyed the piece what interested me more was this sentence…

(I’ve been blocked and called names because of my re-tweets of Loren’s material but that won’t stop me. It’s a guy with a sock (puppet) on his hand — people need to lighten up.)

The people who do stuff like this baffle me because you have to abandon all self perception to act in such a way. 

I mean, there’s simply no way acting like that doesn’t come across as petty.  At the same time if you look at the real success stories of the past you find almost all were people who elevated their detractors.  People who took great pains to surround themselves with a system that empowered others to criticize them despite their status.  This is true of everyone from George Washington to Bill Gates. 

The true giants of our time have always been people who accepted criticism gladly. 

For good reason.  No matter how self aware a person is they can’t see themselves completely accurately.  It’s just not possible.  At the same time most people in the world are determined to avoid conflict (and most of those who don’t avoid conflict are people who are just out to start trouble for trouble’s sake).  Making it that much harder to get a true view of yourself.  So having someone who will tell you the truth about yourself and your world is actually a tremendous gift. 

And perhaps more importantly it’s a gift that people will admire you for accepting.

I’d been reading TechCrunch since very early on (probably the first 6 months) yet I didn’t really start to respect Michael Arrington as a person until he became friends with Loren Feldman.  Because while I enjoyed his posts it’s not a sign of greatness to spout your opinion.  Embracing your critics on the other hand shows someone striving to be more than they are and that’s profoundly admirable. 

(They’ve since had a falling out in what seems like a text book example of two people who do in fact care about each other getting upset over something that seems small and meaningless to everyone not emotionally involved and missing the fact that their hurt is a sign that they are still friends despite what they tell themselves.  But since I really don’t know either of them I’m obviously speaking out of school)

I guess this was kind of a tangent and I almost regret posting it because it does take away from the fun of the 1938 Media videos but I can’t help it.  As much as I enjoy his work I also find Loren Feldman has become synonymous in my mind with this troubling movement where people swear they’re in favor of free speech but then do everything in their power to destroy those who express anything they don’t agree with. 

It’s scary because no one wants to condemn them for acting that way but it’s those people you really have to worry about in society.  The flat out dictator is something everyone can see as bad but the guy with the dissonance to be a dictator while still fooling himself into thinking he’s not is the true danger.