Contemporary conviction

I promise I am not always as serious as the things I write in this forum. When I look back over the things I have written I realize I can come across as a sullen sad-sack who wants everyone else to join in his misery. I don't intend to be that way, nor do I always see myself that way, but it may be closer to reality than I'm ready to admit.

I will, however, tell you I have a rather active sense of humor. The only issue is that my humor is just as twisted and negative as the rest of me. If you know me well you tend to get it, but sometimes I think people who don't know me well completely miss it. You see I tend to draw humor from anti-social or cynical behaviors.

Being cynical comes naturally. I've thought about it, and I'm really not sure if cynicism breeds depression or depression breeds cynicism, but I'm pretty confident they're close pals. Knowing my tendency I just accept my natural bent and redirect it. When I'm extremely depressed that takes the form of telling myself it's depression talking and I start to look at facts. When I'm thinking more logically and the cynicism creeps in I tend to make jokes out of it.

That got me thinking, though, where does cynicism really come from? I read the modern definition that outlines what we all understand as cynicism, but it referenced a foundation in Ancient Greek philosophy. At first glance I was a bit shocked to think there was a philosophy based on the idea that everything is done under false pretense, but in thinking on it more maybe it's not shocking at all.

Western society generally desires to believe in the inherent good in people. The problem is that belief runs counter to the very foundation of our culture. Sure, we are post-modern and less concerned with moral and religious issues, but all societies are founded on some belief system. One portion of the foundation of our communal belief system is, in fact, Greek Cynicism.

Let me lay out that Greek Cynicism is slightly different than the current idea of cynicism. It is a striving for virtue by shunning worldly desires and living in agreement with nature. Much of this was absorbed into Stoicism, which is the idea that destructive emotions and, ultimately, destructive behaviors are the results of inherently flawed judgement. The end-game for both schools of thought give rise to the idea that shunning personal gain in favor of living in agreement with the natural world lead to a virtuous life.

I'm going to pause for just a second. You want to call me a dirty, lazy, communist, hippie. I know, it's cool and I don't mind; just go ahead, get it out now. I want you to read the rest without being clouded by your initial reaction, so let it out then take a breath before continuing to read.

Striving after the natural world leads to a virtuous life. What exactly does that mean? The Greek idea was, as I stated earlier, shunning worldly desires. Does this mean to shun technology, money, societal advancement? I would argue no. The idea is to free oneself from the influence of such things. It is hard to think anything within the Hellenistic world would be antithetical to advancement. Certainly the idea could be, and was, taken to an extreme logical conclusion, but those would be exceptional circumstances.

Looking for virtue in the world around them is where it really went wrong for the original philosophers. They really believed virtue was in the natural world. The problem is that looking at the present state of the world does not reveal the "natural world". We cannot see the natural world, it just doesn't exist. Our world is nearly as far from natural as possible, so to look at it for virtue is to look for something that will never be found. That is a truly depressing realization.

I know I am leading down a really odd path. I alluded to the idea of cynicism being right and then said you can never find the natural world by looking at the world. The key to the thought is I never said you can't find the natural world, but that it doesn't exist today.

In the Biblical view there was a time prior to corruption. When the first corruption of man occurred the path for the entire history of mankind and the natural world was changed. There was no natural world, as nature itself had been corrupted. Nature was and is corrupt- unnatural. There is absolutely no way to see the natural in nature because the present view is prismatic. It cannot be visibly reconstructed.

The Biblical solution is we may see a restored world through the eyes of Christ Jesus. It continues in the fact that the world will ultimately be restored to its natural state in Christ. We cannot see this restored world today, but we certainly get a taste of the natural world by living as Christ.

So that whole trip around the world to say, maybe being a cynic isn't so bad after all. It's just that I am being the wrong kind of cynic. If my cynicism were to point me to chase after the things of God maybe my cynicism can take me from illness to health.