The names of philosophical movements mark out our daily lives. Who has never heard the adjectives : materialist, nihilist or sceptic ? The curious thing is that, very often, the sense we give to the adjective is in fact very far from the philosophical thought or attitude it stands for. Nihilism, for example, is not a pessimistic philosophical current. According to Wikipedia: "it is only a transitional phase, a stage whose aim is to create a new society". And yet the word nihilism in the French language is intrinsically tinged with pessimism.
The same is true of the word 'cynic'. The Larousse gives us as synonyms: cheeky, bold, impudent, insolent.
And yet cynicism represents a current that for me is an ideal of life.
The man with the barrel
The leading thinker of cynicism was the famous Diogenes of Sinope. Diogenes wanted to break free from his society and return to a simpler life. He took up residence in a barrel... His possessions consisted of a lantern, a toga and a staff. Minimalist before his time, a social parasite, he obtained his food from charity. It is said that the great Alexander of Macedonia approached him one day to ask his advice. When he asked Diogenes if there was any favour he could do to him, Diogenes replied : "Yes, stand out of my sunlight".
This is cynicism: to free oneself from material goods and social norms. It is easy to understand how a cynical being can resemble an insolent being. If a cynic does not recognise social norms, then nobody is his superior and he is nobody's superior. The Dalai Lama also lives by this principle. According to Matthieu Ricard, one of the interpreters: "One day, after greeting François Mitterrand, [...] the Dalai Lama, before getting into his car, went to shake the hand of a republican guard who was standing aside, under the dazed eye of the President of the Republic". Moreover, the word cynicism comes from the word "dog" in Greek.
To be cynical is to live a dog's life
But what for?
I keep coming back to this idea in this blog. As we grow up, society gives us all the bars we need to build our own cozy cage . And before we know it, we can't take any more risks, try new things.
"You still have to work anyway", "who's going to pay the credit?", "what are they going to think of me?"... So many bars that don't come from us but from our environment and that we learn to integrate unconsciously as we grow up. But that one regrets on one's deathbed..
Buddhists, too, have identified eight worldly concerns: :
- the desire to gain / the fear of loss...
- craving for pleasure / fear of suffering
- craving for praise / fear of blame
- desire for fame / fear of anonymity
These concerns undermine us in our quest for wisdom. When can I have time to mature if I am obsessed with my career or what others think? Critical thinking means scrutinizing these forces and fears that move us in order to understand them so that we can then better choose our path.
I find it very frightening to think that our culture and our society would dictate the choices we make in life. In an ideal world, we would have to constantly search for an answer to the meaning of life. Once you have one, let's say that I believe I was born on Earth to feel a maximum of positive sensations, then you have to build your life around this primary objective. But as we evolve, we must constantly question and evolve our definition of the meaning of life. Do not remain locked in what we defined in our youth. And each questioning systematically leads to change.
And what about the dog's life in all this?
For my part, I've developed in recent years a rather existentialist perspective. That is to say, I think that our life has no meaning in itself, and that we are only a microscopic fragment of the drop of water that is humanity in this universe. Our goal is just to have a happy life. Which is very different from a life entirely made up of pleasure.
A happy life is a life where we are anchored in the present moment and where we live intimate and humorous relationships with other humans. The rest is to be eliminated. Like a stoician, if I'm afraid of damaging my new shoes, then I must change that fear and not take excessive care of my shoes. In short, I think that a happy life is a life where we gradually get rid of the superfluous to learn to blossom in the most important thing: beautiful relationships and full awareness of the present moment.
The problem is that our culture - especially the neo-liberal culture - pushes us fully in the opposite direction. So obviously I am not going to throw everything away tomorrow and settle down in a barrel on the pavement. But the life of a dog, the one led by Diogenes of Sinope and other hermits, is an ideal that guides me in my decisions and in my daily life.
Besides, if we all lived like dogs, then there would be less economical growth. Living like a dog is environmentally friendly.
* quote from Plaidoyer pour le bonheur, by Matthieu Ricard