July 23, 2007
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cynicism
When I am at my most cynical I start to think that everyone knows pretty much exactly the same truths. I am speaking about philosophical truths of course. Like truths about justice and righteousness and courage and their opposites. You know they really aren’t that complicated. Sure figuring out what to do in any particularly situation is a nearly intractable problem for mere mortals, but understanding the concepts and principles that guide are actions. That’s nothing. We all know it. We’re all hard wired for it. It’s apparent.
And yet, we forget these truths all the time of course. We forget and lose them and feel lost. One day we ask ourselves, “what is this thing called justice? I just don’t get it.” And then we think deeply about it and after a time we remember. Then we tell others the same truths so they can remember for a short time and then forget again or just not care.
Oh we get it wrong sometimes too and say things that just aint so. But that isn’t because we don’t know them. It’s because we’ve forgotten and usually because we desire to believe the opposite. It flatters us. Or maybe we use the untruth as a means of manipulation to acquire some advantage. Or maybe we assert the untruth because we like how it sounds, because it is poetic and artistic and sounds like it ought to be true even though we know it isn’t.
So we lie for a while, get lead astray by one another and then we tell each other truths we know yet again and as always when we hear them we know them to be true. We are reminded. We remember. Yes this is a thing we’ve always known. It is real and all those other words were just illusions that vanish with the winds. But we might still choose to forget or choose to not hear again and then we’ll need to be reminded or remind ourselves. And so it goes over and over. We remind each other again and again and forget again and again. It’s a rather screwed up situation because that means we are never quite moral beings, like the reality is just out of reach, and that we’re all kinda just deceiving ourselves, pretending to be more than we are.
Sometimes when I am at my most optimistic I think, well, pretty much exactly the same thing. Only now it seems beautiful to me, how we rely on each other, lean on one another, strive together. And as we interact and grow we never quite act in perfect accordance with what we know to be true, but we can always get a little closer to being people who do. Isn’t that enough?
