Monday, August 29, 2022

Cynical

"Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack." George S Patton

There seems some wisdom in that. But suppose I try to apply it to myself--what am I most cynical about?

Politicians. The naive reply is that we have no lack whatever of them. But maybe one could probe differently--I have no political power, and no experience with the necessary tradeoffs and manipulations required to get anything done. I don't know--if I had such experience, would I be less cynical, or would that expand to include myself?

Advertisements. It's horribly hard to get noticed in the din of slogans and images. I was "watching" someone's playlist the other evening, and the pictures of bands used alongside their songs were always extreme in some way. Remember the fashion a few years back for attractive women to e.g. play the cello nude? I suspect it didn't help their careers long term as much as they hoped, but there weren't so many actually involved that one could do a good statistical analysis.

News and reporting. OK, fair enough. I lack enough good sources of trustworthy news. I know that when I investigate science reporting the story often has little resemblence to the facts.

Popularity. OK, fair.

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