CYNICISM vs. OPTIMISM

Observing older people, many years ago I decided I would never become a “cynical old fart”. Since I am a natural optimist, I approached my current age of 85 confidently.

Being here and now, optimism has become increasingly difficult to reconcile with reality, which must always come first, assuming we can recognize reality when we see it.

You see the condition of our world without my presuming to itemize the many reasons I now see to call for a certain cynicism, but I must refer to some of them.

Being a member of the Homo sapiens species, I feel qualified to put forth a few views I see to be realistic. Generally speaking, with fortunately a few notable exceptions, we are a primitive species. More directly stated, we generally are stupid, even too stupid to adequately appreciate our stupidity. John Cleese understands.

What is evidence of our stupidity? I pick an easy one; Global Warming. Still, in face of undeniable scientific evidence, there are those who deny that we are warming, or perhaps admit warming, but demy humans are responsible, or perhaps deny it is as critical as science says.

On this point, during the Trump administration it became popular among many of our citizens to simply deny science findings…