“I think we too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're led to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's active disengagement.” - Ken Burns
Standing on the sidelines and making witty commentary is much easier than a full-throated engagement in the fray. It’s easy to ridicule what has not worked, it’s much harder to dream up the solutions. So, for many, cynicism has become the default mode.
Cynicism is created when hope meets experience and experience shows hope up. We leave high school or college with grand ideas of how the world can be a better place. We wonder why our parents seemed jaded. We embark on careers full of hope, believing a little inspiration and perspiration go a long way, until many of us hit the walls of organizational politics, bureaucracy, or most depressing of all, people who can’t or don’t want to be helped. Eventually, most of us settle for making a living and doing good where we can. We smile a little at those who still think they can make a difference, but mostly we entertain ourselves with witty, cynical comments.
It’s embarrassing to admit that our dreams of bettering humanity have failed. It’s not the right thing to admit that society is still plagued with poverty, crime, illiteracy, and poor health. Indeed, it seems these problems are likely getting worse. While we lock our doors at night and look for the best schools for our children there is still a part of us that resents ourselves for fleeing instead of engaging the problems. So what do we do?
