Cynicism-the worst Meme of them all!

We live in a world entirely made up of Meme’s. What is a Meme you might ask? A Meme is an idea that has been permeated through culture to the point that it is consensually accepted as reality; accepted as “the way it is”. This my friends is an unacceptable way of living our lives. Most people can point to a large number of things that are wrong in today’s world; that’s the easy part. Try pointing to ways that today’s world can be improved upon. Activism you might say? Writing your Congress man? Donating money? I’m sorry to say that these things provide temporary changes at best. They are all performed within the constructs of the already established Meme’s of society. To cause real change we need to attack the Meme’s; attack the core of societal belief’s that are fundamentally flawed. So how do we do this? Where does change begin?
Well the difficult part of this is to change the Meme’s that you have sold yourself about your own personality. Too examine the idea’s that have made up your personality, the Meme of “Such and Such”. One all too common Meme that I seem to be experiencing in many of my good friends is Cynicism. What exactly is Cynicism? Well here is the definition from dicitonary.com “An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others.” I have a different idea of Cynicism. It seems too me to be the ability to see things that are wrong with other people or the world in general; but the failure to recognize them as Meme’s, nothing more than idea’s. A person that has become a Cynic has failed to separate themselves from the things that they are so judging of. They spend all their time pointing at the things that are wrong with the world without addressing the causes. It seems that somewhere along the ling Cynicism also became the backbone of humor. That this attitude has developed that “all you can do about it is laugh”. This seems like a defeatist attitude too me.
I have heard a lot of people express the belief that being an Optimist in today’s world is just being naïve. Well I actually feel that being anything but is naiveté’; based on a lack of understanding or the way culture works. Where did all of the societal Meme’s come from? It wasn’t stone tablets delivered from “god”. They came from the people like you and me. In a world made up of idea’s humanity acts as the architect. There are millions of new ideas every day. Our culture thrives on the continuation of new idea’s that keep us going. Corporations, Governments, Laws and Religion are as much an invention as electricity is. What if we found a better source of power? Well I hope I’m not the first to break this too you but we have! We also have better forms of Government, Laws and Religion. So why haven’t these new idea’s taken hold of society yet? I feel a great deal of the reason why is that we are stuck with the Meme of Cynicism. Too many people see these problems; without seeing the possibility of change, when there is so much of it. Look at how much the Meme’s are changing in just this country. We actually have a plan on the table for universal health care! Members of Congress are actually suggesting transparency of the Federal Reserve. I don’t believe that either of those bills are the best things possible but they are better than what we have now; or at least they are a far cry from the state of things just a year ago. We are in a world of change and we have never had a better chance to change our societal Meme’s as dramatically as we do now. So drop the Cynicism, give Optimism a shot and help our world change for the better!