The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe:
““People are scum.” “Mankind is a moral wasteland.” “I’m ashamed to be human.”
“Whenever cynics express themselves, I’m tempted to retort that philosophy is autobiography and they should put their claims in the first-person: “I am scum.” “I am a moral wasteland.” “I’m ashamed to be me.”
“A colleague once took me up on that challenge. He was a religious conservative, and we were debating human nature. He was a pessimist, arguing that humans are sinful, driven by dark, anti-social desires and not to be trusted. He was also a big guy who had played aggressive sports like football in college. The conversation turned to women, and he reminisced about a former girlfriend. She was naïve, he thought, because she had wanted to get to know the real him. He said, “I am male. I am 6’3″ and weigh 240 pounds. And she wants me to express my true feelings?”
“Cynicism is not a journalistic claim that there are plenty of nasty people out there. It is a general claim that it is human nature to be repulsive and evil …” [Read more here.]
Last week’s column: Are We Too Wicked for Freedom?