I saw this in a textbook I read
recently, Introduction to Mass
Communication by Stanley J. Baran and I thought it’d be nice to share with
you. It’s a 1915 Cadillac Motor Car Company Image Advert.
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually
live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man
or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art,
literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the
same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and
detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also
becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be merely
mediocre, he will be severely left alone- if he achieves a masterpiece, it will
set a million tongues wagging.
Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at
the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint,
or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass, or slander you,
unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great
work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious
continue to cry out that it cannot be done… The leader is assailed (attacked)
because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely a proof of that
leadership. Failing to equal or excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to
destroy- but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives
to supplant (displace or usurp). There is nothing new in this. It is as old as
the world and as old as the human passions- envy, fear, greed, ambition, and
the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he
remains- the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his
turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is
good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial, that
which deserves to live- lives.
©The Cadillac Motor Car Company
1915
Kindly explain via the comments
platform below, your own interpretation and understanding of this write-up.
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