cynicism

Obsessing on evil is boring.  Rousing fear is a hackneyed shtick.  Wallowing is despair is a bad habit.  Indulging in cynicism is akin to committing a copycat crime.

DEFINITION: Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia.  It's the understanding that the universe is fundamentally friendly.  It’s a mode of training your senses and intellect so you're able to perceive the fact that life always gives you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.

HYPOTHESES: Evil is boring.  Cynicism is idiotic.  Fear is a bad habit.  Despair is lazy.  Joy is fascinating.  Love is an act of heroic genius.  Pleasure is our birthright.  Receptivity is a superpower.

PROCEDURE: Act as if the universe is a prodigious miracle created for your amusement and illumination.  Assume that secret helpers are working behind the scenes to assist you in turning into the gorgeous masterpiece you were born to be.  Join the conspiracy to shower all of creation with blessings.

DISCLAIMER: Material in this book may be too intense and controversial for some readers.  It contains graphic scenes of peace, love, joy, passion, reverence, splendor, and understanding…. You should therefore proceed with caution if you are a jaded hipster who is suspicious of feeling healthy and happy. Ask yourself: "Am I ready to stop equating cynicism with insight?  Do I dare take the risk that exposing myself to uplifting entertainment might dull my intelligence?"

Okay, so maybe I'm romantic... but somebody is supposed to be romantic. Some warrior is supposed to go to war against the imperial forces of cynicism and irony. I am a sentimental soldier.

Irony: Don't let yourself be controlled by it, especially during uncreative moments.

"Cynicism," like "heresy" and "heterodoxy" and "atheism" and "agnosticism" and "paganism" and "heathenism," is above all else a way for organized orthodoxy's caste of official censors to encyst and segregate and thus neutralize all contrarian forms of seeing and thinking, all (necessarily implicitly) prohibited and repressed ways of exercising disruptive and iconoclastic intuition and intellection (for to analyze and explain these things too openly is to give them publicity and potential cogency when the point is to asphyxiate them).

Or you think you are always gentle, yet look at how viciously the world strikes at you nonetheless! This idea of your victimization is merely cynicism turned inside out and made more impenetrable to insight. You are clever enough to disguise your addiction to gloom in protests of innocence. The good news is that you may never be effectively challenged by others about this routine; few friends have enough wisdom and chutzpah at the same time. The bad news is that you will probably never walk your way to forgiveness in sensible steps. You will have to leap your own well-built defenses, disowning your morbid vanity in mid-flight.

A jaded optimist is someone who expects the worst, but prepares for the best.

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."

The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.