Cynics

Shades of Gray Describing yourself is dangerous business. One must be incredibly careful with words or run the risk of being misunderstood. If one refers to themselves as one thing, people will take the idea of it that has been separated from its true form or at least, the positive aspects of it – and in some rare cases the negative ones. However, there is no black or white when dealing with groups of people. Cynics are a testament to the gray area that defines all archetypes or subgroups of society. Though they are often portrayed as pessimistic and lonely, cynics are in fact purely realistic with a perfectly normal capability for forming relationships. The archetypal cynic is sarcastic, critical of human behavior, brilliant in some form, and in many cases isolated. One token example of these traits is Doctor Gregory House from the TV series “House”. He is always shooting scathing remarks at his fellow doctors and questioning the motives of his patients. In one episode titled “Open and Shut” House dissects the open marriage that one of his patients is a part of. He justifies it saying that the husband “must be compensating for his own misdeeds” when he finds out that the husband only agreed to this arrangement to satisfy his wife. This refusal of the doctor to accept the possibility that the man could simply be doing something nice for his wife fulfills the criterion of skepticism towards human behavior to a T. House is also an extremely gifted doctor. In the hospital he works as the head of the diagnostics division and his superior skill causes media type="youtube" key="BcX4iDIB4bY" height="251" width="448" align="right" everyone around him to put up with his unconventional and often dangerous, illegal, and quite frankly annoying methods. However, he has only one close friend throughout a majority of the show who doesn’t even always like House. This begs the question, are all cynics like this? Or is this just how we see them? Well, cynicism in its truest form is “distrusting or disparaging the motives of others” according to Dictionary.com. This in no way entails brilliance, loneliness, or sarcasm. These do however often apply to the contemporary cynic. Perhaps the cynicism stems from the heightened intellect of the individual. A truly alert person must be able to see the shortcomings of the around them. This person cannot put on the rose-colored glasses and live in an idealistic world full of unicorns. No. They prefer to be realistic about their surroundings so as to avoid being caught off-guard by the ways of the world. Past experience gives them insight into the inherently selfish nature of humans allowing them to accept the lemons that life throws at them. Their intelligence also is what forces them to understand that they control their own destiny and even if there is a God they can’t rely on him to make everything okay. Han Solo – the cynic who does not believe in the power of the force – says it perfectly in // A New Hope //, “There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny.” It is the cynic’s enlightened approach to taking care of his own business and ensuring his own happiness. Of course, too much of this can lead to the stereotypical loneliness since cynics do have a way of looking out for their own interests. They’re only human so of course they would be selfish. It is their core belief after all that humanity is an inherently selfish race. For many, cynicism is simply the result of shattered idealism. Peter Senge hits the mark with his statement “Scratch the surface of most cynics and you find a frustrated idealist — someone who made the mistake of converting his ideals into expectations” (Quotes About Cynicism). This is sometimes referred to trading the rose-colored glasses for jade or simply putting on the jade colored glasses. The color of the classes is jade in reference to being jaded or wearied from over-exposure. In Terry Pratchett’s //Discworld// series the character Sam Vimes personifies this idea. The version readers first meet in //Guards! Guards!// is an alcoholic cynic wearied by the ways of the world. However, when the readers go back in time in //Night Watch// and meet seventeen year old Sam you see a perky young idealist with faith in humanity. This change happened from over-exposure to the motivations and subsequent actions of people. Such events can be explained in that when onerealizes that life is in fact nothing like the songs and fairytales of childhood – usually through some kind of heartbreak and trauma as I can attest – they are forced to confront the reality of life. David media type="youtube" key="5yRevXDzw-A" height="315" width="420" align="left"Wolf said it amazingly with his statement “Idealism is what precedes experience, cynicism is what follows”(cynicism quotes). Sometimes, cynicism is used as a coping mechanism and that’s where the bitterness associated with it comes in. Those who turn to cynicism to deal with their problems rather than as a result of their problems are the ones prone to trying to crush other people’s happiness by telling them how unrealistic their expectations are. This is where Broder Daniel gets the lyrics for his song “Hardened Heart” that say “behind every cynic is a bitter dreamer”. A great example of the bitter dreamer is Harvey Dent in // The Dark Knight //. After the death of Rachel isn’t prevented by Batman, he stops believing in the good of people and becomes Two-Face, an entity which leaves people’s lives up to nothing more than the flip of a coin. The worst depiction of cynicism is that it is an equivalent to pessimism. Pessimism is the belief that whatever the worst is that can happen will happen which is quite different than the realistic views of the cynic. Friedrich Nietzsche claims that “cynicism is the only form in which base souls approach honesty,” implying that it is believing in the truth of matters (Quotes About Cynicism). This is far from the cynicism characterized in //South Park//’s “Getting Old” episode where Stan goes to the doctor and discovers that he has cynicism. This entails him calling everything s**t and going around complaining about how terrible life is. That is textbook pessimism only mislabeled. The frequency of that mistake is tragic and really testifies to the human condition of blindness to nuance. Within a world full of toomany idealists and arguably not enough cynics, we are confused as what we are not and begrudged for the extreme versions of what we are. The gray that is cynicism (and every other subgroup for that matter) is mistaken for a pitch black extreme. It is only when we as humans forsake our self-righteousness and respect others for their views that we can live in a happy society – or as much of one as us selfish beings are capable of. Works Cited "7 Things Star Wars Can Teach You About Life and Politics | The Daily Mind â Making the Daily Grind Meaningful." //Thedailymind.com//. Flash Press Media. Web. 14 May 2012. . Barnett, Barbara. "TV Review: House, M.D. - "Open and Shut"" //BC Blog Critics//. 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 14 May 2012. . Broder, Daniel. "Hardened Heart." //Cruel Town//. Daniel Broder. MP3. "Cynical." //Dictionary.com//. Dictionary.com. Web. 14 May 2012. . "Cynicism Quotes." //Thinkexist.com//. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. . "Getting Old." //South Park//. Comedy Central. 27 Apr. 2011. Television. "Jade Colored Glasses." //TV Tropes//. Web. 14 May 2012. . "Jaded." //Dictionary.com//. Dictionary.com. Web. 14 May 2012. . Pratchett, Terry. //Guards! Guards!// New York: HarperTorch, 2001. Print. Pratchett, Terry. //Night Watch//. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Print. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times; font-size: 16px;">"Quotes About Cynicism." //(95 Quotes)//. 2012. Web. 14 May 2012. <http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show_tag?id=cynicism>.