Cynicism...

I've been dealing with a nasty bout of cynicism today and I thought I'd blog about it...I have these three really great articles by Francis Fukuyama, Brent Scowcroft, and Amartya Sen that I have half-completed posts on...but I'm not feeing inspired at this moment to comment on brilliant thought...

I want to take a moment to reflect on recent bout of cynicism for the moment...

The most serious period of cynicism I ever went through was in grad school...there was a period when I was keeping up far too much with TV journalists and commentators and other half-ass policy thinkers who are full of cynicism and have plenty to share with the rest of the world...

It was bad...for both Brandi and I...

Cynicism is like a disease, I've decided...when you get lost in it...you bring down everyone else around you, as well...and it solves nothing...it accomplishes nothing...and then it congratulates itself that it predicted that nothing could be done, anyway...it's a pretty courageous stand, let me tell ya...

Anyway...

The world is not changing as quickly as I would like it...even though the most recent demonstrations around illegal immigration and the fundamental principle involved -- where the law or people should be taken more seriously -- is one that very much signals a recognition of some underlying principles around the law and reality for people...which is that people only follow laws and rules, generally, and specific laws and rules (thankfully) that they understand and agree with (I very much doubt any of us would want Germans complying with laws to turn in Jews during the Holocaust or laws mandating death to Muslims who convert to Christianity in Afghanistan...most people just don't really think about these things very much, is the truth)...and that they otherwise resist, fight, and ignore laws or rules that they don't understand or agree with...and no amount of enforcement will make that go away...and nor should we expect anything different...

Maybe it's watching the hysteria about Barry Bonds every day in the newspapers...watching journalists who couldn't get 400 hits in a season if they wanted to commenting on Barry Bond's ability and his steroids use as if they really could if they could just get the steroids that Barry had (we bullshit ourselves so much, I swear to God)...the truth is Barry Bonds is one of the greatest hitters in baseball history and little league also-rans are biting at his heels because they demand a pure game that we could certainly have better if we would approach the issue reasonably and less cynically, but which we will never, ever, ever get by trying to boot one of the games greatest hitters from the game and from the Hall of Fame...

But what I know is responsible for my funk, today, is that we keep taking the cynicism so seriously when it doesn't deserve to be taken seriously...including my own...

Cynicism is not realism...cynicism is a romantic image of a perfect and pure world that is confronted with a less pure and perfect reality and lingers endlessly in perpetual disappointment about the world, as a consequence...

Cynicism is responsible for nothing...when asked why ideas are not working to solve problems, cynicism only has to respond "Nothing ever was going to work"...

And cynicism parades around like an answer for something when coming up with ideas and making them reality takes so much more time and energy...that don't always create solutions as quickly as we'd like...

And that's what I'm feeling, right now...

The world is definitely getting better...Melissa and I watched The Squid and the Whale, last night, which I highly recommend and reminded me of just how much better we, people, have gotten, generally, at recognizing and dealing with reality rather than leaving up emotional defenses to avoid it...

And politics is yet one more place in life where we are learning to do that, more...the current effort to basically legalize illegal immigration is one example of that kind of progress when people look at reality, first, rather than just at their expectations...

I'm frustrated, today, because I'm upset that the world is taking so long to catch up...because I don't like being threatened...by bosses...by friends...by anyone...to accomplish goals that, if worthy, I would help much more readily with if I was persuaded of their worthiness and which I am thoroughly uninspired by when I am forced to do them...and which, if unworthy...are not worthy of anyone's compliance, nevertheless active collaboration that is better promoted by discussion and persuasion than by force...

I'm upset...because as I watch the media go after Barry Bonds...and as I listen to pothead friends hypocritically advocate going after Bonds...sometimes after a recent hit off the pipe...

I think..."Are we just going to forever pretend that our cynicism has no consequence?...that having no solution or having a solution that clearly will not work...or having a solution that will only make things worse...that this kind of bullshit really isn't the problem that it is?"...

Are people just going to keep pretending that the drug war has worked when it clearly hasn't if you have any familiarity with the drug culture, at all?...

Are we just going to keep pretending that we'll somehow vindicate those efforts as we fruitlessly go after steroids use in baseball?...

Are we just going to keep pretending that if we just create the right rules, develop the right policy, mete out the right punishment, that we will somehow make problems go away that require -- require -- active collaboration and cooperation from the people involved, whether we fuckin' like it or not?...

Are we just going to keep pretending that this works when it so clearly doesn't to anyone looking without ideological blinders on?...

I'm trying to get some inspiration, today...but I have paperwork to do that I just have no interest at all in doing because I've been strong-armed on it...

I'm scared that I'm becoming an adult in all the ways that I've always hated about so many older people...

That I'm getting kind of resigned to a world where we are just too foolish and resigned to be honest about our failures...

Investigating steroids will not make them go away in baseball any more than investigating drugs makes them go away in a "drug-free" workplace or in the culture, at large ("drug-free" workplaces, in my experience, have everything with promoting the images of companies that do not want to face the much more disappointing realities that people find plenty of ways around drug testing)...

And putting pressure on Iran to abandon their nuclear ambitions has clearly led them to pursue them more, as they sense a threat to their sovereignty and strategic self-interest (will America step in an protect us if Iraq attacks us again, Iranians must be asking themselves...and of course the answer to that question is no...even as I think it is a very good idea to persuade Iran to not develop a nuclear program and just up the ante of antagonisms in the region that need diplomatic and political resolutions rather than military conflict that will resolve nothing...Brent Scowcroft has a very good article on this problem in the most recent edition of the National Interest that I very much appreciated, even as I disagree with Brent that "the right" rules-regime will finally accomplish the goal of dissuading Iran from adopting a nuclear program)...

But...the saving grace...

Is that we can only avoid reality on this for so long...avoiding it perpetually would have us in a state similar to Palestine or North Korea or Cuba or Syria which we are far too free and thoughtful to allow to happen...

Democracies, thankfully, foster enough openness and freedom that we can eventually overcome denial about festering problems in a way that closed societies do not...

The big saving grace for humanity, right now...

Is that despite all its stupidity...and laziness...and cowardliness...and decadence...and excuse-making...and its failure to take responsibility for problems...

All of these experiences, generally, become learning experiences for us...

As we learn from our failures...our weaknesses...or shortcomings...our faults...

As much as from our successes and our strengths...

This shortcoming...our failure to forgive...our failure to give up our romantic disappointment with a world that doesn't live up to our expectations, always...

And my failure, in particular...to accept that the road to a better life...is paved with our failures as much as with our successes...mine and everyone's...

Is the most important and glaring of our failures, right now...

But we can't avoid it, forever...

Because it doesn't serve us...we don't function well, this way...it is, as Abraham Maslow might say, a neurotic and insecure stage in our individual and general development...

We can't function without forgiving it...each other...and ourselves...

I know I can't...and I'm crystal clear about that, at this point...

I need some time to walk and think...

I hope everyone has a good weekend...Florida and UCLA in the NCAA finals...should be an interesting game:):)....

Have a great day, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben