Yes Sipakatuo, opinions can vary from person to person, and each is entitled to his or her own opinion.
But all opinions are not equal.
The opinion of the person with knowledge in a particular field must inevitably carry more weight than the opinion of the person with limited, or no knowledge in that field, and the opinion of the giver of a gift is very likely to vary from the opinion of the receiver of a gift.
Thus, the right to hold, or even to express an opinion must be equally respected, but the opinion itself should be valued in accordance with the weight of knowledge that has helped form that opinion.
It is the right to an opinion that is respected, not necessarily the opinion itself.
Similarly with the concept of negativity.
That which may appear to be negative from one person's perspective may be valued as distinctly positive from the perspective of another.
Thus some of us may regard data obtained without effort to be of somewhat less value, than data gained through one's own efforts:- this point of view, will not be shared by all, as it could be argued that the freely obtained data has given the seeker after knowledge more time and perhaps a springboard to extend his personal search for knowledge.
The idea that all can be achieved through indomitable will and ceasless striving, I personally regard as somewhat of a motherhood idea:- a worthy idea that few people will disagree with but one that can be easily shown to be fallacious. Each of us can only achieve our potential by a combination of factors, including, the will of God, good luck, the absence of factors that can detract, natural ability,and then maybe, a little bit of effort and a little bit of endurance.
If I look back at the 70 years that are behind me, every major thing that I have succeeded in has been because of good luck, and some forces that were outside my control. My efforts were much like those of a sailor guiding a boat being blown along by the wind and trying to make sure it didn't run aground.
The production of a book , in the final analysis must come down to two questions:-
1. --- will its production result in adequate financial reward for all those involved in its production?
2. --- will its production benefit the readers of it in some unique way?
If the answer to these two questions is "yes", then that book probably should be produced and published.
If the answer is "no" then speaking only for myself, that book should not be published, as it has stolen time and resources that could have been better employed in some other way.
There is always a limit on both time and resources:- our only choice is how those two things are used.
This matter of decision is one that must be addressed before the first line of any book is penned. The decision is not one for some vague final consumer, as it is very likely that the final consumer is not fit to judge the value or otherwise of the contents of the book:- if he has read it to seek information, then obviously his own level of knowledge is insufficient to pass judgement.
Thus the concept of publication must be subjected to searching analysis before any book is even into a planning stage, and it must be assessed by a person who has the necessary level of knowledge to carry out this analysis and assessment. Very often the only person with this level of knowledge is the potential author.
If some recent authors had carried out objective assessments of their planned publications prior to picking up the pen to write, then perhaps we would have been spared the seemingly unending parade of re-hashes that have been foisted upon readers and students in many fields, including that of keris study, over the last 20 years or so.
And I'll add a PS to the above.
When we talk about time, we are talking about the measure of a life.
We all only have so many minutes, so many heart beats.
If anybody gives one moment of his or her time what is being given is a part of that person's life.
How do you put a value on the life of another person?
When somebody uses that time to impart information, or knowledge that they have gained by the use of their allotted time, they are giving a gift that is truly beyond the concept of "value".
The fact that we tend to measure that gift in terms of dollars demonstrates that most of us have very little understanding of either the nature of life, or of the nature of knowledge.
|