Highlights of the Forum ‘Politics and Cynicism: How to Create Hope When Everything Feels Bad with Dean Dettloff.’
Dean Dettloff, PhD in Philosophy and Research and Advocacy Officer for Development and Peace - Caritas Canada, gave us an enlightening presentation on the traps of cynicism and the spiritual tools to overcome it.
There are reasons to be cynical when we read the news (disappointments, false promises, duplicity, even our own temptation to ‘just enjoy our coffee while the world is burning’)
Cynicism is reasonable, effective for self preservation, and ubiquitous. But that doesn’t make it true!
Cynicism can be ‘from above’ (on the part of leaders who seem to act in self-interested ways or duplicitous ways dishonest ways, a kind of reflexive selfishness) and ‘from below’ (when suspicious of narratives of power but also unwilling to believe in a possible alternative, hope. A kind of reflexive negativity)
In his book “Critique of Cynical Reason”, philosopher Peter Sloterdijk says these cynicisms both share a fundamental assumption: even though things are false, insufficient or even evil, things couldn’t be otherwise. “It is what it is”.
Cynicism brings things to a stop. It suggests that no other world is possible.
In a way, cynicism is criticism stopped to soon. Cynicism prevents us from acting, as if it were an excuse for us to give up.
Cynicism can be defined as “Enlightened False Consciousness”
Sloterdijk explains: "Cynicism is the universally widespread way in which enlightened people see to it that they are not taken for suckers. There even seems to be something healthy in this attitude, which, after all, the will to self-preservation generally supports. It is the stance of people who realize that the times of naivete are gone.”
"Cynicism knows itself to be without illusions and yet to have been dragged down by the power of things."
"The discontent in our culture has assumed a new quality: It appears as a universal, diffuse cynicism."
Overcoming cynicism involves spiritual tools:
1/ Rediscovering our embodied existence, getting in touch with reality
‘Kynicism’ is a response to cynicism's confusion of ideas: living against idealism, for example in the story of Diogenes, who looked up at the Great Alexander who came for advice from the wise man: Diogenes has the self- confidence to say to him ‘you're standing in my sun’, and to perform a criticism of his empire through that simple fact.
Religious traditions encourage us to put ourselves back into our bodies, as in Buddhism with breathing, or in Christianity with contemplative meditation or the focus on incarnation.
2/ Opening ourselves to the other:
The life and tradition of the saints give us great examples of getting out of our own minds. They show another embodied response to cynicism but attuned to the other to the other person or to creation (whereas cynicism is isolating).
3/ Stepping out to create something new in hope
Philosopher Berdyaev says ‘creativeness is not an adaptation to this world and its necessities; it is a transition beyond the limits of this world and the overcoming of its necessity’
In the same way, Pope Francis said to social movements. ‘You are social poets, because you have the ability and the courage to create hope where there appears to be only waste and exclusion. With your hand you know how to shape the dignity of each person, of families and of society as a whole, with land housing, work, care and community’
It can be tempting to then think the response is to spiritualize our way out of cynicism by finding an alternative way to be a hopeful or faithful individual but creativity and working with others are the ultimate ways to cut through cynicism.
Cynicism and politics
Cynicism prevents those in power from actually using their power to deliver the changes we urgently need
Cynicism prevents people outside of formal power structures from actually using our power to pressure elites and build the alternatives we urgently need
Pope Francis suggest building a ‘multilateralism from below’ to respond to global social and environmental issues (Laudate Deum (38): ‘In the medium-term, globalization favours spontaneous cultural interchanges, greater mutual knowledge and processes of integration of peoples, which end up provoking a multilateralism “from below” and not simply one determined by the elites of power. The demands that rise up from below throughout the world, where activists from very different countries help and support one another, can end up pressuring the sources of power’.)
Social movements are able to create hope when it seems impossible
Social movements need people with the courage to confront their apathy and cynicism. We have to be people of faith. (Hebrews 11:1’ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’)
The point is to get organized!
There is a bit of a courage involved in getting rid of our cynicism. The key is to make criticism useful instead of demotivating.
And as voters we should never undermine our power to press elites.
Other comments from the Q&A and Listening Circles:
- For context, Sloterdijk was trying to understand what gave rise to Nazism: he points out cynicism. Cynicism prevented action against Nazism, and it was structural to Nazism: it gave a big story, but a moral story built on nothing, with a cynical system top to bottom.
- Cynicism is dangerous because it kind of gives permission to give up (on taking action, on making any difference)
- To combat cynicism, stories of success can be useful: showing that change is possible.
- The only ones from the 60’s activists who survived (overcoming discouragement, cynicism etc) are the ones who had faith.
- Most successful social movements are successful not because they have a huge list of victories in the policy space or because they have achieved social transformation. They're successful because they've built relationships internal in that social movement. That's true of Development and Peace.
- We can combat cynicism through connection. With relationship building we create pockets of hope.
- It is all about connections, but don’t try to convert anyone.
- Rather than confronting people, just say: “I think differently about that”
- You can’t out argue a cynic, but we can invite him to an alternate experience.
- Discerning to receive information. Cynicism puts a stop to discernment. Being open to different opinions, facts, inputs, keeps us moving, learning, in a never-ending dance.
- We make the road by walking.
- Be an actor not a reactor
- Dialogue can be disappointing, but it is the one useful fiction that we should never let go, a means to liberation. Dialogue spaces are a great way to combat cynicism, a radical thing to do.