Criticism and condemnation are easy. Negativity and complaining come naturally to human beings. In universities today, for example, many scholars pride themselves on being “critical”. But if your orientation to society and politics is exclusively critical, you are playing politics on easy mode. It’s harder but more valuable to couple critique with an attempt to understand why things work as they do, to balance complaints with appreciation, and to propose realistic improvements that don’t risk destroying the complex mechanisms underlying remarkable achievements and progress.