Death To Cynicism

I find myself wondering what is the point to make new year resolutions, after all they only ever last until the second of January then you find yourself stuffing yourself full of McDonalds,’ getting shitfaced and chain smoking in one all out binge! But that I realise is the problem, the onset of age has slowly ground all the idealism I suffered from in my twenties into so much emotional dust and been replace with a form of cynicism so aggressive that it borders on out and out nihilism. Therein lies the problem with cynicism it actually has me at a point where I just can’t be bothered. I used to like the George Bernard Shaw quote “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.” But now I think I prefer Peggy Noonans’ “Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It's unrealistic and kind of cowardly because it means you don't have to try.”
That’s my new year’s resolution to resurrect that little bit of my youth known as idealism, if there had been no idealists in the past where would we be now? You can forget the Magna Carta straight away; forget any concepts like freedom and democracy. I mean imagine if freeborn John Lilburne hadn’t bothered to fight for his freeborn rights!
So there we go that’s my proposal for 2009 a moratorium on cynicism and a return to activism and idealism, this year I will quit smoking, I will return to boycotting McDonalds’, Nestle and Coca Cola and I will take a more active and positive role in the events unfurling on this globe that I inhabit.

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