From My Journal (XV)

Wednesday, April 22, 2009:

A person possessing a sceptical outlook is always in danger of becoming cynical and is usually accused of glorifying a Utopian past or fantasy to which he compares life's present difficulties and shortcomings. Sceptics are also accused of seeing their own faults and foisting them upon the outside world.

As a sceptic, I admit that these criticisms are generally true. Cynicism is a trap I fall into when I believe that both sides in a debate have agreed on the parameters of their debate before they begin. It is a rigged game, so to speak. I do believe, generally, that the American citizen of the past was better informed, a better reader, and recognized his or her responsibility as a citizen far more than today. So to a large degree I do glorify the past.

My faults also frustrate me; my moral and personal failings, the limits of my mind, my laziness and slothfulness. I recognize in them a universality pertaining to all human beings. Beware those who see no wickedness in themselves. It is they who will not suppress it, contain it, and mitigate it because they will see it as good. They view themselves as good and so anything from themselves must be good. Those who commit evil acts always view them as good.

Therefore I am sceptical of those wo claim hauty and jaunty confidence in the future. There is a hubris in the land today that thrives on both Left and Right. This hubris threatens the political, economic and social order of the nation.