Judge not.

Apropos of nothing, my friend from blogging, the surpassing Dave Trott, sent me a quotation the other day. It's been knocking around my cranium for the past 72 hours or so.

“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; ...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

Years ago I was reading something about WW2 and I noticed that at least among US Armed Forces, the ratio of enlisted soldiers to officers during the war was about 10:1.

Today, that ratio is 5:1.

In other words, proportionally there are twice as many officers today as were needed to win the greatest armed-struggle in the history of the world.

I suspect the same "officer-creep" has happened in advertising. Watchers/commenters have replaced doers. Committees of Gurus discuss work without having the ability to actually do work.

Accordingly, the empathy for those whose face is "marred by dust and sweat and blood" has diminished. Those "cold and timid" who sit in judgment are unwilling to walk a mile in your shoes. Actually, they want you to walk a mile. Just so you're far away from them.

I've never been in the Armed Forces and really, I mean no disrespect to anyone. But life, no matter what you do, is not a spectator sport.

Virtual reality will never replace the real thing.

Theoretical ads will never do the work of ads that actually run.

Judge not.