by BigTex » Wed 14 May 2008, 17:57:07
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I') understand why people reach a point where they conclude it's just easier to go with the flow, too, like you, Jack. A person can only take so much chronic disappointment in their fellow man without becoming cynical. I'm trying very hard not to end up there...but then I haven't been exposed to some of the things I'm sure you've been exposed to.
Disappointment is usually the result of unrealistic expectations.
How did you arrive at your initial expectations that led to disappointment?
It can be a tremendous relief to just accept the world as it is without judging it based upon the standards you may apply to yourself.
Once you fully internalize the world as it is, nothing will ever disappoint you again. You will only have pleasant surprises.
To me, being realistic in this way is the cure for cycnicism, not the cause of it. Cynicism is, to me, just the manifestation of an unrealistic set of expectations.
Another matter that can be quite liberating is to stop judging people who don't meet your standards. The world is full of people who do dumb things. I've done dumb things myself. When I hear of people doing dumb things, even incredibly dumb things, I don't judge them, I just try to make sure I have not depended upon them to be smart, because that would mean that I was not being realistic about things in the first place.
I am not condoning anything by recognizing that it happens. It's just that ultimately my judgment regarding the rightness or wrongness of what someone else does is irrelevant, unless I happen to be a judge or jury member, or I find him in my living room in the middle of the night.
Even if I were the one in position to render a judgment, I wouldn't imagine it was because I represented what was "right", it would merely be because I was the one who wielded the power over that individual. In other words, "right" is not some driving force that seeks justice; rather, it is power that is the driving force, which may synch up with agreed upon notions of "right" and "justice" in certain societies.
Concepts of "right" and "justice" are outfits that power wears when it goes to parties with its sophisticated friends.