A Cynical Optimist

I am generally not a fan of labels; more often than not, they limit what someone can be or create unwanted expectations. I deliberately say “more often than not” because yes labels can be liberating and help people to understand themselves but they can also be used as excuse for certain behaviours. So I am not against labels but they should be handled and used with care.

If you are reading this, then you will know that I not only slapped the label "a cynical optimist" on myself, but I also put it as the first line of my website.

Why? This is a question my friends have been posing, finding it sounds negative. However, if we pause to contemplate what a cynical optimist truly embodies, perhaps our perceptions might shift. Why is it that when two words, one perceived as negative and the other positive, are combined, our attention gravitates towards the negative? Does an 'optimistic cynic' sound more or less negative?

Well, regardless, I inherently believe things are great, people are good, and ultimately things will work out. However, that doesn’t imply I'll abstain from questioning why things might be a bit crap, why people may not be all they seem, or why things may go awry. When people don’t ask “why,” bad things often happen. Not always due to nefarious reasons; it can often be a lack of perspective, knowledge, or just a simple mistake. Think about that on a macro and micro level; bet you are not short of examples coming to mind.

Now, there is a balance to this. Too much “why” can kill joy. Ever asked a child to do something so you can surprise them with something they will love, but all they keep doing is asking “but why?” to every answer you give? Yep, you know that feeling.

So that is the challenge of being a cynical optimist: knowing when to question and when to just accept. That largely comes down to trust. That is a subject for another day.

For now, I will leave you by asking: Are you inherently an optimist or a pessimist, and then ask what kind of optimist or pessimist you are? I would love to hear what you come up with!

Nick

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

ChatGPT instruction for edits: “please proof read for typos and grammar.” Then I asked “are there are any parts that are not clear?”