The Cynical Individual

The world today is full of cynics - those individuals who are fault-finding critics and who adhere to the belief that human conduct is motivated entirely by self-interest!


Each and every one of us enjoys and loves a good story. We especially like stories that have neat and tidy endings. We don't mind if the story is a sad story, filled with hardship, as long as there is justice in the end! We like for right to win and wrong to lose! We want the good people to come out on top and the bad people to wind up in jail!


In Humpty Dumpty, we weren't bothered by the fact that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, despite working feverishly, could not put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Part of the reason we could live with it was because nobody pushed him off of the wall. That would have been unfair and unjust treatment. After all, eggs have no way to defend themselves! LOL! Since nobody was to blame and since everybody tried to help him, we were able to tolerate the sad ending. The story may be unhappy, but not unjust.


In Cinderella, we are told of a beautiful young woman who is raised in a cruel home by a cruel stepmother with cruel stepsisters. The beautiful young woman, after being taunted by her stepsisters, gets to go to the ball in the castle. However, at midnight, the carriage that carried her to the ball turned into a pumpkin and that was alright! We could live with that because she was warned ahead of time about the possibility of that happening. And, it was especially alright since, in the end, she got the "glass slipper" and lived happily ever after. Justice won out in the story. What we would not have been able to live with is if one of her tormenters had wound up with the glass slipper. That would not have been just! Cinderella’s foot deserved the "glass slipper!" We smile at such poetic justice!



Finally, there is the story of Robin Hood. Robin Hood was the one who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. We had to do a little ethical shuffling in this story - with the right and wrong of that - but, in our child’s mind, that was fair play! After all, the money and goods wound up in a better place than where they would have otherwise. The peasants certainly needed them more than the rich. So, we applauded the adventurous exploits of Robin Hood and his followers because we know that ultimately fairness prevailed - at least, that’s the way it seemed in our young little minds!


What we would not have tolerated was to discover later on that Robin Hood was really a con man with a Swiss bank account, with all that money taken from the rich being deposited in his account! We could not have handled his ripping off the peasants and building his own empire then, secretly living in a mansion he built from the money that he siphoned off the rich - all the while playing the role of nice person! Sad endings we can handle, but not unjust endings! Suffering makes us sad, but injustice makes us mad! In our childlike minds, we still long for fairness and equity. We still want stories to end well so that everyone can live happily ever after. However, I’m here to tell you, that life is not that neat and tidy. In life, the helpless are pushed around - cruel people often get the "glass slipper" - and, some of those who we thought were generous, unselfish givers, were in actuality greedy self-serving takers. If a person lives with injustice long enough, especially if that person lacks a diverse perspective, that person will become disillusioned and, utlimately, cynical!


So, does cynicism have a solution? There is hope beyond cynicism! We need not try to understand our circumstances, we need not compare our lot with another's. We need not retaliate, we need not resent, we need not become bitter, just because we did not get a fair shake. We need to replace passive self-pity with active courage. We need to quit whining "woe is me" and start thinking in terms of "Here is my message, world!" Everybody has a story - you don't know my story and I don’t know your story- however, if we take complete control of our lives and direct our paths using a broader perspective, we can all have the same ending...a much happier, more fulfilling and less cynical one!