Cynicism is defined: Cynicism is an attitude characterized by a general distrust of others’ motives. A cynic may have a general lack of faith or hope in the human species or people motivated by ambition, desire, greed, … Wikipedia
In Ancient Greece this was Cynicism: Cynicism (Greek: κυνισμός) is a school of thought of ancient Greek philosophy as practiced by the Cynics (Greek: Κυνικοί, Latin: Cynici ). For the Cynics, the purpose of life is to live in virtue, in agreement with nature. As reasoning creatures, people can gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which is natural for themselves, rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, sex, and fame. Instead, they were to lead a simple life free from all possessions.
So, Ancient Cynicism was about living life in virtue and in agreement with nature. Live to be honest, live to live as nature intended for us to live. To reject all desire for wealth, power, sex and fame…to live deliberately and simply.
Has Cynicism again become a way of life, a philosophy that we all are starting to utilize again? I think that is only half right. I think we have the first part of the first definition down pat about cynicism being characterized by an attitude of general distrust of the motives of those in society. We have that down perfectly. But what we do not have down pat is the second part which talks about the living the life simply and deliberately by living to be virtuous and in agreement (at one) with nature. That is what truly makes a cynic. If we don’t do both parts, we are either simply living life in the worst possible conditions without any goals or objectives, or we just distrust everyone around us.
I truly believe that we are living the latter. We distrust everyone around us except for (in most cases) those closest to us. We have become a society of distrusters. This means that we have lost the ability to trust those around us, and as such we have been led to a point where we can’t possibly accept what someone else says may have a valid idea or point. That distrust leads to fear, and fear again…leads to hate. Hate meaning dislike, disdain, inability to see eye to eye with your counter parts in society.
This is where we are today. I’m just spit balling here, but I believe that when we call people cynics, we are only using half of the definition of the word or idea. We only work within the parameters of the simple part. The part that is easy to do. DISTRUST, DISLIKE, DISAVOW…
This weekend of Thanks, I challenge all of us take off our hats of politics, remove our clothing of political rhetoric, and stand before each other devoid of any clothing, and see each others thoughts for what they are, not what we perceive them to be. Open up your minds to other ways of thinking…even if just for a minute. If you are like me…not a Trump supporter, look at what people who do support him see, think, and feel. And if you are a Trump supporter look at those of us who are not for just a minute, and look at what we see, think and feel.
Putting ourselves in each others places at the most raw of notions. You’re right and I am wrong for just a minute, will open up your eyes to what the other person perceives. It might just help us all to come to an understanding of why we can’t come together in the middle and seek to understand each other’s views.
I am sorry that this isn’t as eloquent as I would like but this damned refresh issue keeps erasing each paragraph I type in some part or in total…and often times what I wrote is lost forever and I have to go back and piece things together, which often isn’t what I wrote originally. I hope that this latest glitch gets fixed soon. I have a new found respect for the poster who typed pages and pages of links and thoughts to each link. I made fun of the loftiness of the post, tongue in cheek, but now I know just how difficult that had to be, when half way through each new paragraph he’d lose at least half of what he’d posted.
Anyway Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Open your minds…don’t necessarily change your minds. That’s not what I am asking…Just see other peoples views…and try to accept them for what they are.
Bless you all>>>
K1
