Jamie Lawrence

We're all in the arena

I fucking hate this quote:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

― Theodore Roosevelt

As wielded by every tech-bro CEO who inevitably is trying to execute on some labour arbitrage opportunity or weak regulation. The thing is, they are not the “only man in the ring”; we all are.

It’s our data they’re selling, it’s our society they are shaping, our jobs they are making obsolete, our labour they are buying (or selling), our climate they’re polluting, our media they are destroying, our attention they are demanding.

They are not alone in the ring. We’re right there too and often they’re beating the shit out of us. So, yes, we will criticise and report on their inadequacies and their failings and how those punches land on us.

This poem isn’t a fucking shield that tech companies can use to hide from legitimate criticism.

Photo by Rui Alves on Unsplash