Cynicism as a Substitute for Intelligence

[PseudoSage]

Usually I resist posting in forums like these about serious topics like these, but this has become a great annoyance to me.

Now I can understand the political extremism in this country as the uninformed masses taking face value information about complex socioeconomic matters from showmen who call themselves reporters. I tend to be able to ignore that easily.

What has recently got under my skin are the people who leave comments on every news story that is not only depressing, but tries to pass itself as "seeing the ugly truth about humanity". In the end the comments usually sound like "The world is a horrible place and humanity is dooming itself. Science is always correct, religion is evil, and we're murdering something by existing."

Now, I am not saying the world is free of pain and we really aren't doing these horrible things. Thousands die constantly just to make sure the capitalist dream continues on and humanity as a whole seems to live for conflict these days be it real or created to gain something.

No, what I am referring to is the pseudo-nihilistic comments people make that people applaud as intelligent without actually saying anything relevant at all. This cynicism does not respect other viewpoints, it does not even respect human life as we are all apparently disposable and won't be missed, any other views are just brainwashed people who can't see "the truth", and humanity never had any redeeming points or hope for survival since its creation. They write these things without really addressing their stance or often times even the issue directly yet people seem to agree in unison so easily.

A common example is the atheist who believes religion is equal to brainwashed hate mongers and that evolution is the ultimate viewpoint. Anyone who believes differently is stupid and science alone can save us all. These types of people give other atheists a bad name in my opinion. There is no need to hate religion instead you only need to just not believe in it. And science without a sense of art or soul deprives any discovery of personal meaning.

Yet these people tout themselves as enlightened when all they've done is probably google the word "Evolution" and "Science" to get their basic info. Heavens forbid people like Nietzsche or Socrates or Boethius or Descartes have a read every now and again to at least give somebody some perspective, but no. The age of true cynics with a point and a theory is past and behold that we are left with the remains. Cynicism has become the popular attitude this day and for no reason other than a bunch of older people who are famous were cynics and it makes you sound cool and deep.

So I ask you all, is the complete depression of the soul and destruction of hope a path to enlightenment or is it a crutch to the fool who poses as a philosopher? Can these types of ideas still be taken as a serious or valid argument or just some anonymous teens liking to sound older and more traveled than they are?

I leave you with two quotes I find relevant from one of my favorite thinkers, Friedrich Nietzsche:

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”

"Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn't. "

[Eskimo]

u are completely correct. the fact that 'bad news sells' is something intrinsic in today's society, indicative of a deeper social trend on a global scale. this results in the meaningless doublethinking which is passed off as perceptive truths about the world, because of the commercialisation of negativity. just look on the news the ratio is something like 4:1 of negative/positive news, simply because thats what people 'want' to hear.

now as to why people want to hear negative news, seek nihilism rather than optimism, and generally obviate a need for religion...that is a very interesting matter.

in my opinion it's part of the development of society into "post-society". we are a postmodern society of postcolonialists living in post-WW2 era; we have the most, know the most, and supposedly understand the most. in doing so we fail to understand that which cannot be understood, something previous societies have indeed had a firm grasp of. to explain more clearly, we don't understand that we can't understand. we are over-developed, like children with machine guns...we have knowledge but not understanding, so when we attempt to use our knowledge to address issues such as our origins we inevitably and decisively fail. this breeds an overall nihilism in today's culture which no amount of underthinking can avoid in everyday life.

at the OP, the "complete depression of the soul and destruction of hope" is NEITHER a "path to enlightenment" or a "crutch to the fool who poses as a philosopher". negativity is a state which arises from a global social trend, not simply because fools want to look intelligent and pass unfounded cynicism off for truths...in fact it's a subconscious state prevalent throughout society. however neither is it the correct way to "enlightenment", because it rests on the false premise of human understanding. therefore i'll go with option c) which is that it is what it is, so deal with it .

[PseudoSage]

Interesting points. I do suppose modern "civilized society" has gotten to the saturation point of source. Here is my response:

Unlocking the power of the genome, space travel, and the instantaneous access to information we possess may have made us as a society vain. We believe that the mysteries of the universe can be definitely solved given time and theories have been accepted as truths on the premise that our methods our sound and standardized. Gone is the age when debates raged about the nature of the atom even though each person made a "discovery" that fully explained its mechanisms. The inquisitive age seems to be over and we may just be the rotting remnants left over from a just a few decades of gorging ourselves.

When the search for truths, be them personal or logical, ceases we are left with little to strive for as a race. Our time of peace is upon and our squabbles that once engulfed the world in flame are now no more than dim embers in comparison. When even the idea of day to day survival is taken out of the picture the distraction of strife shatters the veil of self-deceit. Our motivation to march on forward halts with curiosity at an all time low and the daily battles blown out of proportion.

It is with this understand that the two fundamental things about the human race, our connection to the lower organisms who may perish at an moment and our search for higher meaning as a personal journey of self-fulfillment, that we crave one of those things in any conceivable form. Unfortunately for mankind we seem to have chose the falsehood of manufactured cynicism. We create strife in our own lives by looking at the world as if change is never possible and concentrate on the evils that still persist. When this individual shares their ideology it fills the gaps in other beings who are also wanting making think that this person has stumbled upon something truly grandiose.

A more simplistic view would be to examine the culture shift of the past three or four decades. In the past the counter-culture movement gained a strong popularity and that generation passed on the belief that what is not pleasant to hear is usually correct. From there on what is not the norm becomes the default and what is radical and unsettling becomes the most politically smart move available.

Just a thought.

[AaronScythe]

Cynicism or Pessimism?

The only things you can guarantee upon, are the rules of Occlams razor, and murphy's law.

The simplest solution is often the best (at least for the majority), and whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

Apply that to people, and you begin to see the cynics as just another overopinionated idiot.

The smart person is the one who realizes that the other people find him to be an idiot too.

Oh, and philosophy is the only answer, as it is always too vague to give a proper one

[† Emotional Outlet]

Okay, obviously the original posters are very unlikely to return to the conversation, but I just wanted to say that I was totally on board with this conversation up until halfway through the second post, where I was lost and continued to be lost in the third post. As someone with a flair for dramatics and weaving tapestries with words, I just...

what

what are you people talking about? Maybe it is too late in the night for me to be parsing this. I don't know.

Anyway, I will go with my initial reaction to the first post and return to the later posts at another time when I am more conscious.

I do believe people hold cynicism and negativity in higher regard than they should and treat those who tend to approach life more positively or optimistically as naive greenhorns, simply too new to understand the reality of the situation. They confuse cynicism for realism.

One of the things I sincerely disliked about the squadron I worked at was the attitude many people had with regards to the squadron itself. Many people were constantly going on about how horrible things were, how awful this person and that person is, how things are never going to change and it's just so awful and soul-sucking and terrible and everything sucks. Before I even worked in that squadron, when I was still working in a transition flight, people would shake their heads and offer me pity when I told them what squadron I was assigned to, forewarning me of how dreadful it will be.

And you know what? It wasn't that bad until the constant complaining wore me down and made me bitter. My patience was wearing thin. My ability to empathise and sympathise was disintegrating because it was endless and I hadn't a single outlet of positivity to energise me, no regularly supportive people to fill my mind with good thoughts, to help me overcome the daily grind. I tried to be that person for my coworkers, but all I would get in return was a condescending, "Well, you haven't been here long enough to know better. You don't know what it's like."

People would hold onto grudges against people for months and years, even if the person who had wronged them hadn't wronged them since then. They fed off each other, revelling in the knowledge other people hated the same people they did, but all these bonds ever seemed to create was just people who were more emphatic in their complaining about how bad things were!

I never really got the chance to experience working there in my own way. I just got sucked into the negativity because there was just so much of it. I wouldn't even be at work and hanging out with people, but all they would want to do is talk about work. Yet in the same breath they complained about not having any free time, about always having to be at work and never getting a day off.

This isn't an attitude I saw just in that squadron. I see it a lot on Tumblr. I click through a lot of blogs, reading a few pages from each when I get the chance. When I come across any that have posts containing suicidal ideations, I leave them a supportive message and follow them. Some people respond kindly and appreciate my support. Others seem to ignore them completely, which doesn't bother me. What bothers me are the people who thank me for the messages, never take me up on the offer to talk, and then complain on their blog later on that no one wants to talk to them or help them.

Even in random encounters on Pesterchum, I'll end up talking to people who are so stubborn and stuck in their negativity that any attempts from me to be polite and cheerful are ignored and stomped on. Attempts to cheer them up are disregarded and attempts to make pleasant conversation are railroaded by the broken record of "what's the point" and "everything sucks".

I think so many people just assume no one will care about them that they just fall into this despair and they feel enlightened by doing so. The possibility of a random stranger actually caring and wanting to listen is so foreign that they snuff out the possibility before its even given a chance.

It is tiring to talk to people like this, even when they are people I love and care about.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Emotional Outlet

[Alice]

OKay...I may not put extremely long commentary on here like you all, but I will say that a valid point has be made to which I happen to agree with.

Side note: I love using cynicism and intellegence together to really throw people off when they act like that. Thou, I am a very cynical person. LOL

[zx0]

In reply to EO:

I think many people post their woes on the internet to wallow in self pity. They don't want help, just attention. If they turned their lives around they wouldn't have good samaritans like you to pay attention to them. I would bet that many are chosing to portray themselvs as melancholic when in reality things aren't so bad.

I did this myself once when I was about 13

In general, in the past few generations we have been receiving world news, not just local and national news. There is always a civil war going on somewhere, always genocide and political skulduggery. 100 years ago we wouln't have heard about it, nut with the 24 hour world news culture we are bombarded by it. Personally I opt out of reading most news. I do not usually read a newspaper, watch news on tv or read news websites. I do follow some sports news and some science/tech news which is normally positive, but thats beside the point.

Even without following the 24 hour news culture I still know what is going on in Syria, Israel blaming Iran for a bombing etc because you actually CANNOT avoid it. People talk about it, you catch a headline or two. Mass media tells people what to think and how to behave. People need to stop being suckers and decide for themselvs what to believe and think.

[DrumRoll]

bah, what a pedantic load of waffle. Hot air and wasted words. Protracted discussions like this are the reason your point goes unheard. People simply can not be arsed to listen/read. I understand your point (although I should point out that I do believe humanity is destroying itself/ the world) but you really need to abridge your opinion.

"WE'RE ALL DOOMED" might be a tad pessimistic but at least it gets the point across,and it makes a far better headline:D

[† Emotional Outlet]

DrumRoll, if you don't like the debate, you don't have to participate. Lodging criticisms against people's writing styles can be done privately.

[lemmingllama]

Really, cynicism is pretty common nowadays. Its mainly because we respect and admire the people who question, and they normally turn out to be cynics to a degree. Then all the "born again christians" and other people who only like their own viewpoint start up and soon enough it becomes popular opinion, as it is now. Honestly, I like a good complain. Everyone likes to vent. Also everyone loves to be right. Still, it doesnt mean that our truth is the only truth, or that our truth isnt right at all. The way I see it, what we know and believe is a fragment of what we will know and believe, so by taking in opinions then we can change and improve our system of belief. A belief system should be fluid rather than rigid, so that it can account for every possibility.

Now on the subject of negativity. Honestly, people are just whiny little bitches who have problems and want to get other people to know about it so they can get pity and support. They dont actually want the problem solved, just the relief when someone tries to make them feel better. People arent proactive anymore, and this is what causes them to be like that. Not everyone understands that your situation can get better by either fixing the problem or changing your attitude. Anyways, I rant too much and I have only about 2 hours of sleep under my belt, so I have no clue if any of this will make sense to someone who is coherent.

tl;dr People are whiny and stubborn, deal with it....

@EO Sometimes its nice to put a tl;dr (too long, didnt read) thing at the end of a longer post so people who just skim over the long post get the gist of what you are saying. Then you might suck people into reading your longer posts, or just make them understand the point you are trying to make.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I would appreciate if you didn't blatantly ignore what I just said, even under the guise of helpfulness.

Also I think you're thinking more of skepticism more than cynicism. While I suppose a cynic can be considered a type of skeptic, cynicism has a more negative connotation than skepticism.

Always remember, there is a difference between skepticism and cynicism. [...]....there [is] a big difference between skepticism and cynicism. Skepticism is about asking questions, being dubious, being wary, not being gullible, but always being open to being persuaded of a new fact or angle. Cynicism is about already having the answers -- or thinking you do -- answers about a person or an event. The skeptic says, 'I don't think that's true; I'm going to check it out.' The cynic says: 'I know that's not true. It couldn't be. I'm going to slam him....'

[...]

Skepticism helps us fix what is wrong with our society. Cynicism leads us to question if it is worth the effort.

[source]

I take no issue with skepticism in general and think people should have a healthy dose of it. People are always posting ridiculous "PSAs", whether it's about animal cruelty or the dangers of microwaves (based on one third grade student's science experiment) or how vaccines are going to kill everyone--it's the skeptics who try to set things straight, find sources for the information. I wouldn't expect the same attitude from a cynic. As one person puts it:

Cynicism is the conclusion, not a way of getting to the conclusion. Sometimes it’s the right conclusion, sometimes it’s the wrong conclusion. Someone who’s cynical about everything jumps to the conclusion even when it’s wrong.

[source] -- It's in the comments.

There isn't much wrong with complaining itself--I'd go crazy if I didn't complain every once in a while and get things off my chest. And yes, there are a lot of people who just complain and cast aspersions at others while not doing anything about it. I think that's 80% of the social justice bloggers on Tumblr. Complaining about everything and everyone, assuming the worst of everything and everyone, usually in addition to that inaction and lack of initiative, is not being smart or enlightened.

[LordLi1]

I have often wondered  if this pessimistic cynicism isn't is so much about the hopelessness and we are all doomed  which appears on the surface of our global community, but rather an instinct action  born out  of the fear  not so much of the world ending but the understanding that our society is ending a new one emerging, and the new one is not necessarily better then the old.

 

Begin plugged in to the world despite what it feels like is relatively new in past  people really didn't now what was going on  one town over let alone  on the other side of the world. a sort  prolonged slow building hysteria  to being aware of the true state of thing yet still trying to live in the will full ignorance that allows for people to  accept the are alright it doesn't concern them.

 

while i believe humanity will persevere. personally it fill me with sadness to watch as the world slowly resets  back to a serf lord  hierarchy for the struggle for freedom and Independence to begin again only this on a global scale and over a much longer period of time.  because the truth is out of this fear of change, the attempt to grasp on to our willful ignorance we  not just a nation but as whole world are sacrificing  freedom and liberty.

 

.... thou this not a fully formed idea yet it something i been thing about and am not entirely sure i my self fully agree with yet how ever these the outline of  the facts before me presently.

 

a psychologist friend of mien told me recently an odd thing has happened  many of his clients say there is something wrong with the world but they don't  know what....

[† Emotional Outlet]

Well, if it's because they think change is bad or terrifying, at least they won't be alone. This xkcd comic has quotes about how society is disintegrating into nothingness and laziness--oh, and a lot of the quotes are from the late 1800s. I'm pretty sure even Cicero said, "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book." Basically every time things start looking like they're changing, people think it's gonna be the worst thing that could possibly happen to us as a race.

 

I also feel like a lot of people tend to think society progresses linearly with conservatism at one end and liberalism or even anarchy at the other ("In the future people will be able to marry their pets!! And It'll be socially acceptable to run around naked everywhere!!"), and that's patently not true any more than the reverse is.

 

I agree the result of a social change isn't necessarily better than the last, but the opposite is also true--it's not necessarily worse than the last either.