Some critics insist they aren’t authorities, yet act with authority in their dispensing opinion and analysis. They deny their impact on others.

Our words have weight and impact on others. Even the meekest of us has an impact on those around us.

When I see folks who are obviously so intelligent that I know they know this and yet actively deny it – I am left to conclude that either mental illness is at work or they are being disingenuous. And I hate disingenuous mother fuckers.

You must remember that critics are not interested in serving the public trust; they’re interested in serving themselves. You’re a critic, and you need to pay the rent: there is a sea of other critics out there in the same boat. Some people in that situation will always go against the tide, to try and stand out. Some people will focus on gushing with the popular opinion as cleverly as possible – perhaps their punchy little quote will end up in a big ad in the newspaper, and their notoriety/income will increase.

And there are, of course, intellectuals who align themselves with elitism; they are forced to have disdain for all things popular. Their inability to be objective is indication of how ironically intellectual they are not.

In the end, critics are just people. People with an agenda. You are seldom going to find well thought-out, thorough objectivity in that demographic, no matter what they’re critiquing.

But mostly, there’s the bitter, sad realization that while they can write and scream or praise and jump up and down, they will be utterly forgotten in the annals of history, where Star Wars will not. For all their words and self-important positing, they know they have made no lasting contribution, no great impact. They’ve changed no lives, and shaped no futures. They’re resigned to being wordy because they’ve done so little. Like a fat, lazy sports fan who doesn’t like how Barry Bonds is hitting this season. Beset by jealousy, and ignorance, compensatory self-importance and bluster, they sit at their keyboards, furiously typing, and turn their self-hatred outward, to the very things they long to be part of most.

millenniumfalcon.com – The Official Media Review Links Thread

I love Dennis Miller’s signoff: “It’s just my opinion, I could be wrong”. Far too often I actually hope I am.