Cynicism & Hope

I firmly believe in the fundamental importance of freedom of speech. Without it, freedom dies, and democracy is impossible. I don’t believe in censorship, because censorship always leads to tyranny. 

But if there were ever a single book worthy of burning, I’d say it is Lord of the Flies. What a darkly jaundiced testimony of misanthrophy and cynicism. It represents all that is worst with the world, in its very cynicism.

(Again, I am only expressing revulsion here, not urging book burnings, of course. Read Chomsky, Orwell, Huxley, and Farenheit 451.)

I feel the compulsion to look at the good and evil in the world, and to face the truth at all times. That is different from cynicism, which is a belief that good does not exist, or at least, if it does, it can never triumph. What a pathetic way to live and to view the world. I am in agreement with people like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Chomsky, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Thoreau, Jesus and the Buddha: the world, or at least human society, is largely what we make of it – and there is more day yet to dawn.

JTR,

September 16, 2020