~a column by Colleen O’Brien
A friend sent me an amusing thought – the trouble with humanity is people. I agree. Another good one along these lines is that the most rampant disease among humans is stupidity.
These are cynical thoughts, cynicism being one of those human traits that is negative but often fun enough to make us laugh. I look for kindness and goodness, of which there is plenty, even as I have taken part in high level cynicism about our present president. I have been aware of the huge waning and waxing balloon of cynicism in me this past decade.
Finally, in one more slough of despond (defined as disheartening hopelessness) regarding my country and what’s happening to its Constitution, its agencies, its citizens, I look up the word cynicism. I quickly decide to be as totally against cynicism as I can be, for the word cynicism is personified in the leader of what is becoming the Unfree World. I have called him the Orange One; I am switching to the Cynical One or the Crabby One or the Downer. Take a look at this:
From my online dictionary, based on Random House Unabridged Dictionary: Cynicism is “…having the qualities of a surly dog; snarling, captious, currish; given to sneering at rectitude and the conduct of life by moral principles; believing the worst of human nature and motives; disbelieving in the reality of any human purposes which are not suggested or directed by self-interest or self-indulgence; having a sneering disbelief in the selflessness of others; a scoffer at pretensions of integrity; characterized by such appearances as a snarler, a misanthrope, a person who believes that human conduct is directed either consciously or unconsciously wholly by self-interest or self-indulgence and the views of others; an easy manipulator pulling the wool over the eyes of a gullible public….”
If that isn’t the man who pretends to lead us, I don’t what or who could be.
Antonyms of cynicism: being credulous, hopeful, optimistic, trustful, unskeptical, unsuspecting.
I don’t want to be credulous – easily imposed upon or apt to believe anything with slight evidence – I do want to see and operate without skepticism, like a tribe in north central Africa called the Tuaregs, who over many centuries continues to fight to preserve their cultural identity, which promotes education, empowers women and protects their rights.
I would like our cultural identity to be preserved along such lines. I’m tired of the Cynical One and the several thousand mean things I could say about him to counter the several thousand mean things he’s said about us and our country.
I simply want good humans, ones who inspire, smile sincerely and don’t lie.
I am tired of woe and nasty things said about our “dying” republic or about individuals: the Cynical One has influenced me to be cynical. And to be mean. He laughs only when he’s making fun of someone:
–Rosie O’Donnell is “disgusting. She’s a slob.”
–Bette Midler’s “grotesque.”
–Arianna Huffington is “unattractive both inside and out.”
When the Cynical One is talking about our country, he ridicules with aplomb: “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he said at his first inaugural speech.
Now that he’s president again, he’s creating carnage across the globe. He wasn’t fully up to it first time around. And now that he thinks he might as well do as he damned well pleases, he will take on anything and everything, especially if he knows nothing about it. I’d just as soon not get his help in MakingAmericaGreatAgain.
He says things like: “We’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries, while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.”
[According to 2020 TaxAct information, the U.S. spends more on defense than the next 12 countries combined (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia). His “facts” are never facts because they’re never accurate.]
He says things like: “We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body and I will never, ever let you down.”
[Our jobs went south because of corporate greed, not government manipulation. And he has never not let me down.]
He says things like the following that he intends for you to think means he will fix things: “When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.”
[Since the Civil War (April 1861 thru May 1865), the United States has not been as divided as we have been from 2016 when a reality TV host convinced half the country he actually liked them.]
He says things like: “We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.”
[Is he talking about himself? The Master Crab is “all hat and no cattle,” an amusing Texas euphemism, to mix my metaphors across the animal kingdom, that means to cultivate a particular image or reputation which has no basis in reality; it means to engage in empty talk, the podium from which he pontificates.]
Okay for today: enough about the Orange One, the Cynical One, the Master Crab. There is news we’ve been hoping for: “Barack Obama Breaks Silence: Calls on Bush and Clinton to Confront Trump’s Threat to Democracy.” [from MSNBC, CNN, ThyBlackman.com, Economist]
