A Rant Against the Cynicism of Millennials

By Sadhika on

A blight upon the earth, the cynic must be put in his place, for the pernicious message he sends out, is spreading. And we millennials are particularly susceptible to falling prey to it. 

What strange times we live in! When it is considered almost “fashionable” to be cynical these days. And why so? Because cynics like to believe that they have a more rational outlook of the world in general. It certainly has a ring of truth to it. Cynics are often the over-rationalising type; they reduce the shades of the world to a set of facts. As if the world could be quantified by even the best among us! It is my opinion that the cynic does so to feel good about themselves as they walk about drunk with intellectual condescension.

Smugness is the hallmark of a cynic. He sees no worth in the world, and for him, humanity is irredeemable. 

Typically, a cynic will only fight battles that he knows he will win, and in that, his sense of confidence is rooted in shaky foundations. He stands by on the sidelines of his own life, watching it go by as a mere spectator. He is not even the main character in his own life, for he does not live each day with intention. He mocks those who plunge themselves into action; he considers it foolhardy to take a poor aim. 

This brings me to the second category of cynics - the perfectionist. This kind of cynic would rather contemplate his life away than take action where needed, for fear either of failure, or of looking stupid, or because he thinks his habit of contemplation makes him superior to the masses. Indeed it must be excruciatingly painful to be a cynic. To live a life with no meaning, no passion, no hope, no faith, and no courage to go after something meaningful if his mind has calculated the odds to be against him, well, I wouldn’t wish that kind of life on anyone.

The cynic has no mission to pursue, for the thing he believes in most strongly is unbelief itself. Finding strength in numbers, he gathers others like him to justify his outlook so that he does not succumb to the misery of his condition. On the rare occasion when he does encounter something that touches his heart ever so slightly, he may not even fight for it. He justifies this lack of courage and will by giving it the name of zen detachment. Refusing to take a stand for his soul, he might even go so far as to expect things of value to fall into his lap undeserved rather than hard-won, as if his mere existence entitles him to something great. 

When he sees others striving towards something they desire or celebrating the victories of hard-won success, he finds it off-putting. If there is one thing that the cynic cannot stand, it is celebration or excitement. He will go so far as to label others as naive or unrealistic for the simple reason that they are not as defeated as him.

The world is replete as it is with colourful characters and sundry experiences, and it is not at all unusual for a cynic to rail at such a world for “forcing” him to be cynical. If this life, its people and the societies they build, could be embodied by a godlike form, the cynic would probably pelt it with stones and spit at its feet and wail, “You have compelled me to be cynical! I wanted to believe, but you clamped that instinct right out of me with the kind of situations you threw me in!” Indeed, the cynic will often take the whims of fortune as a personal affront. 

But even then, he seems secretly pleased with doing so. You see, most people who would have suffered a slight or two (real or perceived), would feel angered, unhappy, annoyed. But the cynic wears his “compelled cynicism” as a badge of honour. He brandishes it with great pride as a champion brandishes his shiny, new trophy. You might ask, what has the cynic to be happy about? He is an accursed creature, who sucks the richness out of day to day events, especially for himself, for unlike the others whose doorways he beglooms, he, himself, has nowhere to run. His mind is his hell, and his soul is its prisoner. The cynic views life, the world and the divine as his rivals, and sees himself losing to their might in a battle of legendary proportions. But he sees this as his achievement for he deludes himself that this badge of cynicism is his spoils, hard-won after the tragedy that is human existence.

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