Happy Independence Day 2008..
 


A CYNICAL SOCIETY
By Sofia Bansal

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of
nothing.
(Oscar Wilde)

We are all cynics. We do not believe in disinterested goodness. We
know nothing of the value of the treasures of honesty, integrity,
justice, mercy, contentment, love, compassion, honor, velour and
sacrifice. These assets are priceless. Hence, we do not acknowledge
them. We refuse to accept that anything can exist sans a price tag. In
the words of Henry Beecher
"The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man ,and never
fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and
blind to light, musing for vermin, and never seeing noble game. The
cynic puts all human actions into two classes, "openly bad and
secretly bad."
By default, we the cynics are driven towards an attitude marked by a
"fatalistic indifference". Of all the demons haunting us, an all-
pervading sense of defeat and despair may prove to be the deadliest.
To quote Ralph Chaplin
Mourn not the dead
But rather mourn the apathetic throng.......
The cowered and meek........
Who sees the world's greatest anguish and it is wrong.......
And dare not speak
Cynicism has dis-empowered us. The resulting powerlessness has
corrupted us. Powerlessness corrupts because it makes us apprehensive.
We apprehend Those others will overpower us and do harm. While we get
harmed nobody will come to our rescue nurturing the very belief that
we have "this is how it goes!" Hence, at all times our natural
reaction is that we aim at overpowering and hurting others to avoid
the possible suffering that he/she can inflict on us. Need one say
more about the dynamics of the ruthless scramble to attain position of
self and authority in a cynical society.
Cynics as we are, we have lost the very feel of "the little spark of
celestial fire" our ex-conscious. There is no self -check. To
accomplish our very duties, we have to be certain of immediate and
tangible rewards. and punishments. We stoop so low as to condemn those
who do what they think is right regardless of the remuneration
accruing. We view those who dare to swim against the tide with
stupefaction, nay contempt. We are compelled to nurture a devilish
attitude because in the final analysis we have to justify ourselves
for our spineless surrender to a cynical society.
The remedy lies in courage, inspirational efforts and imaginative
actions. Faith and self-belief will follow. The fact that "Rome was
not built in a day" cannot be taken as a justification for inaction on
all fronts. It rather implies the need for a steady and consistent
struggle towards the achievement of our ideals. Ideals represent the
ultimate reason for human beings have for what they do. They are the
reason d'etre of our existence.
Ah but a man's reach should exceed his grasp
Or what's heaven for?
(Robert Browning)
We ignore our ideals when we are morally frail. In such a situation,
we get
caught up with immediate selfish ends and delude ourselves by wearing
the
cloak of hypocrisy.

We may borrow our ideals from Bertrand Russell, namely the longing
for
love, the search for knowledge and the unbearable pity for the
suffering
mankind. To keep it simple, we must uphold enlightenment against
obscurantism, rationalism against superstition, tolerance against
fanaticism, innovation against orthodoxy, democracy against
dictatorship and social justice against exploitation.

We must dismiss the devilish logic that" one man cant make any
difference". This is but a lame excuse for active participation and
collaboration in what we can clearly distinguish as being unjust and
exploitative. We can do much to alleviate the sufferings of the less
fortunate and empowered around us. How aptly Emerson has remarked

"An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man".

We must shun meek conformity when it breeds an evil and distorted
psyche. Contrary to general perception, such meek conformity is not
solely
propelled by the quest of economic survival. In a cynical society, the
sense
of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win
his heart by word or deed. To break the vicious cycle, we must
cultivate moral courage capable of every personal daring.
More significantly, let us not be cynics. Let us revive our
shattered belief
in disinterested goodness by following the guideline of William Penn







"He that does good for good's sake






Seeks neither praise nor reward






Though sure of both at last"

Rewards of doing good may not be immediate. At times they may not be
tangible. But same is true for punishments of doing evil. Let us not
crave
for immediate and petty materialistic gains there by degrading the
lofty
status bestowed upon us by the Almighty. Let us instead rediscover our
higher responsibility to our fellow citizens. The following
observation by Woodrow Wilson merits a critical study in the interest
of truth

"When I look beckon the process of history ,I see this written over
every
page that the nations are renewed from the bottom not from the top
that the
genius which springs from the ranks of the unknown men is the genius
which renews the youth and energy of the people. The great struggling
unknown masses of the men who are the base of everything are the
dynamic force that is lifting the level of history. A nation is only
as great and only as great as its ranks and file."

5/3/2008 9:28:21 AM
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