No one is born a pessimist, an optimist, or whatever other adjectives you can think of to describe someone. No, we are who we are because of the events that take place around us and the people we surround ourselves with. In the world we live in, it is hard to be optimistic about anything. Donald Trump elected as president of USA, Britain leaving EU, the entire Rio Olympics fiasco… Every article I read, it gets harder and harder to keep a positive attitude towards the world. We’ve built our cities upon the graveyard of forests, which would’ve inspired awe in any who witnessed them. This is why I’m a cynic.
People do not describe others as cynics as a compliment. They believe these people have a negative view of the world, that they choose to ignore the good. I disagree. I see the world for what it is. Most people perceive the world through bubbles they’ve created for themselves, and inside this bubble, the harsh truth of the world cannot get them. I’ve chosen to burst my bubble, to see the world through clear eyes, and what I see leaves no room for optimism. To me, optimism is the same as naivety.
One of the biggest reasons why I’m cynical is our education system. An educational institute should be a place which evokes passion in learning new things, in learning more about the world and the incredible creatures that inhabit it, and learning about our ancestors and their lives, etc. Instead, it’s just another source of revenue to fatten the oversized wallets of those who own it.
You’ll rarely hear someone say that they want to be a teacher or professors, even those who initially say they do, change their minds. This isn’t because children do not respect the profession, but because the world doesn’t. We pay actors and actresses more than we pay our teachers, and what do they teach children? Teaching is one of the most underappreciated professions and I cannot think of a reason to justify that. These people are responsible for the future of several generations and yet, we treat them as if we do not need them. Then, we complain about how they don’t do their jobs properly or how they show no interest in teaching. How would you like to do a job where no one respects you and blames you for the fault of others? How do we expect a generation of open-minded intellectuals, when those responsible for them are not appreciated?
If the poor treatment of our teachers does not burst that protective bubble that some of us live in, surely the treatment we give our planet will.
Planet Earth is home to a diverse group of organisms of all shapes and sizes. These organisms lived in harmony, taking what little they needed and giving back what little they needed to give back. That is, until a new creature evolved, one that would disrupt this harmony and burn the world down to ashes- humans. Through the centuries that we’ve inhabited this planet, we’ve been nothing but selfish, taking what we want, when we want. We’re so driven by our desires, we resort to unthinkable acts. We cut down jungles to make our own concrete trees. We dug down into Earth and took all of its precious resources, not thinking twice about the consequences of our greed. We covered the bright, awesome starry night with a blanket of gray smoke and despair.
We tread down this path of eminent extinction, even after several signs of what the future holds for us. We stay ignorant to the fact that this planet we take for granted is dying. Those who can see our dying planet and try to show everyone else, are mocked and buried under news of new technologies which are supposed to be clean and safer but are worse than their predecessors. Our world leaders, those whom we trust could make decisions best for our world and all those who live in it, choose to ignore our burning planet.
So, this is the world we live in. Outside our little bubble lies an unjust, unfair and cruel world. We live in a world where the phrase, ‘it’s a dog eat dog world’, perfectly describes us, because we will do anything as long as it profits us, regardless of any of the consequences. Our elders mock us ‘millennials’ for being ungrateful, for the struggle they went through, but they neglect how ungrateful they were for having this planet and its resources. Past generations have destroyed this planet and now it is up to us to fix it before it’s too late.
I might be cynical, but it’s only because that’s the kind of mindset this world creates. I look at the world in a negative way, but only because we seem to want to destroy anything pure and positive. This is why I’m a cynic.
-Ishaan Bose