Cynicism
Cynicism is an adjustment of expectations down. We expect the bad to continue or get worse.
When we understand cynicism from an ecological view, we realize that cynicism is an effective way to excuse ourselves from responsibility. The deeper our cynicism, the more we project responsibility for our world on other people. It works for anyone who wants to enjoy tangible and immediate relief from responsibility. So, the question is: What’s the opposite of cynicism and what kind of people seek its opposite?
My initial reaction is that the opposite isn’t a kind of hope that plays the same role of projecting responsibility on other people and conditions.
April 24th, 2005 16:25
The opposite of cynicism is skepticism.
April 24th, 2005 16:36
I like skepticism because it still leaves the mind open - like the true meaning of agnostic … just not knowing but not closing off on any possibilities. Very quantum.
April 24th, 2005 19:11
Do we have to think in binaries? If cynicism is always expecting to worst, so all surprises will be pleasant ones, and its opposite is always expecting the best; I think a good middle road would be having no expectations and just grinning at anything that does happen. Sort of like Camus’s ideas of the absurd.
April 24th, 2005 20:46
Yes binaries are cheap; I like to use them just to tease and provoke the conversation. Expecting to be surprised (one of the very zen tenets of Open Space Technology) is a great middle ground. It gets a lot easier if we remember that some of the best things in life happen unplanned!
April 26th, 2005 22:47
Your last sentence brought to mind an editorial at the back of the May 2005 issue of Ode magazine. It’s entitled “The Power of Positive Despair.” The author’s point is that hope brings stress by creating desires and expectations which rob one of living in the now. It was a provoking article!