Praying Mantis
As we old farts attempt to dwell merrily in a Post Irony Condition - otherwise known as Wallace's search for useful narratives that are neither abject snowflakeism, Starbucks didgeridoo-libtardism or unchecked, self-aggrandizing fanaticism in beaky caps masquerading as an "enlarging" cause but is, in fact, a narrow, sentimental, and ultimately "pathetic" form of bondage to a chosen self-image - let's attempt to pour scorn on Cynicism and the Cynics. Mind you, perhaps I'm a little too touched by my own experience as a callow youth in what many might have considered a Remand Home. I fondly remember a week long lecture from the pulpits advising the student body to beware of cynics, cynicism, insubordination, Bolshevik attitude, dumb insolence, it was quite a long list with no mention of Socrates, and as a paid up member of the back row, it was a week I thoroughly enjoyed. Any large language model, and pretty much every dictionary will tell you that there are two kinds of cynic which apparently mean different things. The word cynic comes from a Greek word that means dog-like, so think about that before patting yourself on the back. The ancient word Cynic belonged to a school of philosophy that was founded around 400 BC. Good to know that Schopenhauer, an admirer of Poodles who once threw a seamstress down stairs which resulted in a judgement against him which directed him to pay her a quarterly pension for the rest of her life, may have fitted in very well with the ancient cynics, who took joy from publicly flaunting convention, engaging in improper acts, and were all together very outspoken. Yet in their rejection of conventions Ancient Cynics chose an asceticism that believed in self-sufficiency, simplicity on the understanding that true happiness lay in freeing oneself from worldly concerns, they eschewed wealth, fame, social status, comfortable housing and stuff generally. The other meaning of cynic from Webster's Dictionary goes like this : "..a person who distrusts human nature and believes people are motivated solely by self-interest, often expressing this with scorn or sneering. They are skeptical of altruistic motives, questioning the sincerity or goodness of others' actions and expressing this through negativity and fault-finding." Webster's definition of cynic makes an excellent description of what dumb insolence might look like to the frail. Baxter and I are still inclined to suspect that the opposite of cynic is "idealist" : "One guided by ideals especially one that places ideals before practical considerations," or "an adherent of a philosophical theory of idealism." Idealism as a philosophy claims that ultimate reality is mental, it exists above and beyond a materialist's material world. A manifestation of Schopenhauer's Will, as opposed to Hume's empiricism or Marx's materialism. "What do you want? Give me a washing machine, a mule and Pork Chop! A shotgun sound and away I ran." As a potential narrative for Post Irony that leaves plenty of room for good old fashioned pre-late stage postmodern irony, a whole world of healthy cynicism and puerile skepticism, sounds about right to this end of the keyboard.
