All Will Be Well: A Note Against Cynicism
We can’t run from life. We can’t hide from the slings and arrows it will throw our way. There are things that will happen to you that will be outside your control. Life happens to us all. Some already know this, others will come to realise it. But what will always be in our control is our response.
In the past few years, I have met a distinct personality type, mainly among young people. They believe everything and everyone is terrible. They meet people and their default position is to assume the very worst. They expect the worst–whether in people, organisations or systems–and disregard every evidence of the good. They can be very witty and even logical in their derivations. But the consistent negativity can get toxic really fast and envelope everyone around them. This type of view towards life is known as cynicism.
As one thinker famously noted, “cynicism is a self-imposed blindness. You put the blinders on yourself to protect yourself from a world you think will hurt or disappoint you.” I think cynicism is a type of response to the slings and arrows of life. Sometimes, the trials and tragedies colour our perception of everything and everyone.
Unfortunately, you get from life what you expect from it. It is well established- our thinking, positive or negative, has physical outcomes.
If you think everyone is diabolic, you will push even the best people away and in fact, get the diabolic. If you think your nation is irredeemably corrupt and no change is possible, then what hope is there for change?
The revolutionary right now is to be an optimist. Somehow and somewhere we were collectively promised ease and only now realising the fraud. Life is not a beach we coast into, it is a hill we all have to climb. It takes work, it is an adventure. What connects us all as human beings is our brokenness, fear, self-doubt, and shege life has shown us. It is nothing to be embarrassed about. There is no need to hide it in cynicism posing as sophistication. Dare to believe that all will be well. Then go out every day and work for it, surrounded by good friends and neighbours.
