Unlikely Sources in the Fight Against Cynicism
I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I am immensely enjoying Paul Tillich's writings. Consistency is always held in tension with dynamism. Knowing is met with doing. Belief never makes a day without unbelief. For someone who aspires to be a more orthodox Anabaptist, I must say that Tillich is nevertheless fascinating. Perhaps it is because I usually read his work immediately after reading the news, for Tillich is quite applicable after I read the news and before I watch John Stewart.
Bird flu, Supreme Court candidates, disasters, indictments, and Oklahoma football have all piled on to make my cynical side fluorish. And then it is Tillich, the man who describes faith as "ultimate concern", who reminds me that cynicism is the weakest response imagineable. Feeling cynical yourself? Have a sip, but beware the aftertaste:
"We may try to dismiss all concerns and create a cynical unconcern. We determine that nothing shall concern us any more, except perhaps casually, but certainly not seriously. We try to be unconcerned about ourselves and others, about our work and our pleasures, about necessities and luxuries, about social and political matters, about knowledge and beauty. We may even feel that this unconcern has something heroic about it. And one thing is true: It is the only alternative to having an ultimate concern. Unconcern or ultimate concern- those are the only alternatives. The cynic is concerned, passionately concerned, about one thing, namely, his unconcern. This is the inner contradiction of all concern. Therefore, there is only one alternative, which is ultimate concern."
There you have it, folks. I hereby disavow that brand of cynicism, which I shall name "insulatory cynicism". If Tillich gets anything right he definitely knows how to describe the human predicament. You crazy cynics are really concerned, too. Just admit it.
Bird flu, Supreme Court candidates, disasters, indictments, and Oklahoma football have all piled on to make my cynical side fluorish. And then it is Tillich, the man who describes faith as "ultimate concern", who reminds me that cynicism is the weakest response imagineable. Feeling cynical yourself? Have a sip, but beware the aftertaste:
"We may try to dismiss all concerns and create a cynical unconcern. We determine that nothing shall concern us any more, except perhaps casually, but certainly not seriously. We try to be unconcerned about ourselves and others, about our work and our pleasures, about necessities and luxuries, about social and political matters, about knowledge and beauty. We may even feel that this unconcern has something heroic about it. And one thing is true: It is the only alternative to having an ultimate concern. Unconcern or ultimate concern- those are the only alternatives. The cynic is concerned, passionately concerned, about one thing, namely, his unconcern. This is the inner contradiction of all concern. Therefore, there is only one alternative, which is ultimate concern."
There you have it, folks. I hereby disavow that brand of cynicism, which I shall name "insulatory cynicism". If Tillich gets anything right he definitely knows how to describe the human predicament. You crazy cynics are really concerned, too. Just admit it.
posted by matt at 5:22 PM
3 Comments:
News, Tillich, John Stewart, and how can you possibly skip out on COLBERT?!!! I never cared about the world and what was going on in it until that guy got his own show...
Yeah, I think that is what Tillich is prodding at here (if not here, then elsewhere). The key for me is to disassociate "optimistic" from "naive". I don't have to be smiling and excited to be un-cynical. I can still be furrowing my brow as long as I am engaged. It often takes a redheaded wife to point out these things. Aren't we lucky?
I also vividly remember John "New Guy" Tierney yelling at me to cut out the silly "I am a realist" mess when I was trying to get un-involved in things like politics. For some reason, I thought that an educated view was a disinterested one. As if a proper knowledge of the facts required emotional distance. Yikes, talk about naive.
So is there a "brand of cynicism" that is acceptable? That is not insulatory? Not that I think that would be desirable, I'm just pressing for more.
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