The Cynic at war with the world

The cynic harps upon the woeful in life and habitually grumbles and groans that this is the world of vanity and woe. Some unskillful god has created this world, the worst possible of worlds that could have been created.

There is so much of pain and suffering, inequity and wrong, depravity and degradation, baseness and pettiness, malice and envy, hatred and jealousy, crime and sin, they aver, that man is lost in the wilderness of sorrow and sin. The consciousness of their human imperfections, and the existence of physical and social and moral evil heavily press them down. They cannot scatter the dark clouds of melancholy that hang over their heads. Suffering and sorrow shadow all waking hours of their lives, despair of life takes hold of their spirits, and bitterness fills their hearts. Nature, for them, has but one season, and that is autumn. They know no springtime. Life upon earth is a prolonged agony. And now when man is thrown down upon such a world and as there is no escape from it, it is proper that man should face it with courage and get as much out of it as it can give. To enjoy, to be happy, to derive pleasure, even from this world of a thousand woes is wisdom. The real art of living lies in acquiring as much pleasure as could be had, even from the world, which nurses so much evil.

Thus does the existence of evil in the world breed a spirit of defiance and contempt in man of skeptical intellect, nonchalant disposition, and cynical nature. Ever at war with the world, he complains and kicks when death confronts him, and gives up his ghost with curse on his lips upon the world, and unreconciled with thee, its creator.

Save me, Ahura Mazda, from morbid mood and melancholy temperament, that I may not burden my life with futile anxieties and multiply my miseries. Let me not nurse grief and brood over the dark side of life when its bright side preponderates so glaringly over the dark. Thou hast provided joy in abundance and made life livable for all. May I live and die in peace with thee and thy world, is my fervent prayer unto thee, my creator and protector.

This page was last updated on Friday, February 11, 2005.