I don’t know the exact date I let go of my puerile dream of becoming Doogie Howser. Back then, I thought if he could save lives, I could too. And then I realised that Doogie was fictional and that an actor was paid to play him. I also realised the idealistic notion of a teenage doctor out to save the world was not real. Needless to say, my idol fell off the pedestal. Besides, even Doogie did not want to be Doogie anymore. He’s Barney Stinson now. Hang on, am I a cynic? Come to think of it, I probably am!
Cynicism. We have a good dose of it in our society today. Who would’ve thought that cynicism as we understand now – a bitter and disbelieving attitude, is a descendent of an ancient system of beliefs? Cynics were the adherents of an ancient Greek school of philosophy. It originally promoted a virtuous life in agreement with nature. They advocated the pursuit of virtue in a simple and unmaterialistic lifestyle. A rather poetic ironical turn of events don’t you think?
Answer me on this. A car has pulled over to the emergency lane and the bonnet is wide open. The driver waves for help. What will you do? Chances are, your first instinct will be to speed off to your destination. You have read and heard one too many reports of good Samaritans being mugged by supposed victims. You reckon, better be safe than sorry. And that ladies and gentlemen, is you being a cynic.
We started off distrusting strangers, then our neighbours, our society and most critically, our government. We simply don’t believe in idealism and changing for the better. We see a charity campaign; our first thought is “I wonder if the money really gets to the beneficiaries.” And should some radical proposals be tabled in the Parliament, we are quick to arbitrarily dismiss it as agenda-motivated and meant to benefit a select few without even fully grasping what’s being proposed.
On a grander scale, international relations too have been affected by cynicism. Countless reports and word of mouth have shaped our perception on the ‘troublesome’ Indonesian workers. We became jaded and disdainful of their antics. But vice-versa, Indonesians are also wary of Malaysian employers after a number of maid-bashing incidents, culminating in the recent freeze on recruitment of Indonesian maids. What ever happened to neighbourly spirit?
Stories like these are not uncommon. The newspapers, magazines, television and now the internet have all been crucial to developing a captious society that we are today.
In news reporting, we are continuously fed with numerous stories highlighting the many evils of the world. I’m not saying that stories of heroism and do-gooders don’t make the cut, but somehow they take a back seat to stories like serial killers, corrupt officials, sex scandals, etc.
And the entertainment media is also not free of faults. Shows like House M.D., The Shield, Damages all make for good television. If I had to choose, I will crown Dr. House as the King of the Cynics. He is irritable and cantankerous, he doubts all his patients believing they always have something to hide, he deems all good deeds as done with strings attached, and many other characteristics exclusive to the realm of cynicism. But the worse part of it is we love him for being just that!
And these examples are just some of many others showing how rife cynicism is in our lives. We rarely or never even stop to think of how cynicism is affecting our cognition.
Having said that, I’m putting a caveat on this piece; I am not discussing the merits of such cynicism and whether it is founded or not. What I am trying to justify is rather the presence of cynicism within our society. Is it there? Is it deeply rooted? And my answer is yes to all of the above.
Why yes? Because we are not bitter cynics by default, life experiences that turn us into one. As babies, we all may have believed that the world is as clear cut as black and white. No such thing as “yes, but…”, “it’s complicated” or “grey areas”. Then we started analysing the things we see and hear, therefore learning a crucial life lesson: life is full of buts and greys. And this usually lasts throughout our entire adult life and will likely be passed on to our children and the cycle shall repeat itself.
In spite of being cynical, we are also civilised. So we put on a certain mask to the world. After all, we don’t want to scare the children with our sullen faces. But the fact remains that our friendly gestures and sweet talk are mere disguises as we are a bunch of cynics and that the world we’re living in is a cynical one.
Au revoir!
Cynicism. We have a good dose of it in our society today. Who would’ve thought that cynicism as we understand now – a bitter and disbelieving attitude, is a descendent of an ancient system of beliefs? Cynics were the adherents of an ancient Greek school of philosophy. It originally promoted a virtuous life in agreement with nature. They advocated the pursuit of virtue in a simple and unmaterialistic lifestyle. A rather poetic ironical turn of events don’t you think?
Answer me on this. A car has pulled over to the emergency lane and the bonnet is wide open. The driver waves for help. What will you do? Chances are, your first instinct will be to speed off to your destination. You have read and heard one too many reports of good Samaritans being mugged by supposed victims. You reckon, better be safe than sorry. And that ladies and gentlemen, is you being a cynic.
We started off distrusting strangers, then our neighbours, our society and most critically, our government. We simply don’t believe in idealism and changing for the better. We see a charity campaign; our first thought is “I wonder if the money really gets to the beneficiaries.” And should some radical proposals be tabled in the Parliament, we are quick to arbitrarily dismiss it as agenda-motivated and meant to benefit a select few without even fully grasping what’s being proposed.
On a grander scale, international relations too have been affected by cynicism. Countless reports and word of mouth have shaped our perception on the ‘troublesome’ Indonesian workers. We became jaded and disdainful of their antics. But vice-versa, Indonesians are also wary of Malaysian employers after a number of maid-bashing incidents, culminating in the recent freeze on recruitment of Indonesian maids. What ever happened to neighbourly spirit?
Stories like these are not uncommon. The newspapers, magazines, television and now the internet have all been crucial to developing a captious society that we are today.
In news reporting, we are continuously fed with numerous stories highlighting the many evils of the world. I’m not saying that stories of heroism and do-gooders don’t make the cut, but somehow they take a back seat to stories like serial killers, corrupt officials, sex scandals, etc.
And the entertainment media is also not free of faults. Shows like House M.D., The Shield, Damages all make for good television. If I had to choose, I will crown Dr. House as the King of the Cynics. He is irritable and cantankerous, he doubts all his patients believing they always have something to hide, he deems all good deeds as done with strings attached, and many other characteristics exclusive to the realm of cynicism. But the worse part of it is we love him for being just that!
And these examples are just some of many others showing how rife cynicism is in our lives. We rarely or never even stop to think of how cynicism is affecting our cognition.
Having said that, I’m putting a caveat on this piece; I am not discussing the merits of such cynicism and whether it is founded or not. What I am trying to justify is rather the presence of cynicism within our society. Is it there? Is it deeply rooted? And my answer is yes to all of the above.
Why yes? Because we are not bitter cynics by default, life experiences that turn us into one. As babies, we all may have believed that the world is as clear cut as black and white. No such thing as “yes, but…”, “it’s complicated” or “grey areas”. Then we started analysing the things we see and hear, therefore learning a crucial life lesson: life is full of buts and greys. And this usually lasts throughout our entire adult life and will likely be passed on to our children and the cycle shall repeat itself.
In spite of being cynical, we are also civilised. So we put on a certain mask to the world. After all, we don’t want to scare the children with our sullen faces. But the fact remains that our friendly gestures and sweet talk are mere disguises as we are a bunch of cynics and that the world we’re living in is a cynical one.
Au revoir!
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