David Byrne and The Cynics

I’m getting pretty disenchanted with some people. It’s more than possible that this is symptomatic of my general mood, since I’m not normally so affected by other people.

Thankfully a visit to David Byrne’s blog confirmed some suspicions I had and now I know I’m not alone. I always thought Byrne was a cool dude - I knew it when as a thirteen year old I heard ‘Road to Nowhere’ and a few years later ‘Mommy Daddy You & I’:

Well we'll keep driving, keep driving
Driving with all of our might
Changing, still changing
Changing the water of life
Keep that little man a shining
See how the tail can wag the dog

He raises an interesting point about the potential for self-delusion amongst the intelligent:

‘Sometimes it seems like the smarter a person is the better they are at deluding themselves…and deluding others, of course. Intelligence, combined with will, gives one the ability to analyze and reason — but simultaneously confers an equal ability to lie and deny, to ignore and deceive.’

Full musings here

More recently I have encountered people using cynicism as if it were the only intelligent take on the modern world. This is not the cynicism of Antisthenes, who held virtue in such high regard. This is the modern sneer that helps to validate a halt to analysis and reflection.

I myself have been charged with cynicism, though I think there is little basis for this accusation, other than a cruel sense of humour - perhaps I’m kidding myself. If I am a cynic to the point where I absolve myself of responsibility for thought and action then I am truly a fool. I think it would be a tragedy for any one of us to assume we had the world sewn up enough to stop looking at it and our place in it. I'm sure that old Greek would be turning in his grave if he knew what The Cynics do today.