The trap of cynicism
A friend asked me if we have become too cynical in this country. We have, and that is keeping us stuck in the same place. In the past, we went bankrupt because the country was betrayed by its leadership, private and public, by a “bourgeoisie” that got addicted to easy money, to settling and the indifference toward the institutions and meritocracy. And from our tolerance of behaviors that are not justified by any excuse and should not be tolerated in any way.
A former prime minister called it “the expansion of consciousness,” meaning that you hear so many things that nothing surprises you anymore. Did the country’s bankruptcy, which was not only financial, wake us up? The truth is that very few things shock us anymore. You keep hearing “But haven’t they all done the same things?” or “Well, this is Greece.” Troubling behaviors and wiretappings do not shock us. Society is tired, exhausted after years of an economic crisis and now faced with the great risk of further impoverishment due to inflation. There are no moral pillars to lean on. The bar keeps being lowered and it pulls everyone down.
The Academy of Athens, whose members represent the country’s scientific and cultural elite, is consumed by petty political and personal squabbles. Our university professors are often no different from third-rate politicians. They are basically a mix of trade unionists and politicians and nothing more. Even the Church seems to be absorbed by its business plans and forgetting its role. Unfortunately, there are people in key positions who cannot treat the institutions they represent with dignity and seriousness. They seem to care more about a selfie than what their country has entrusted them with. Politics has become a huge hall of behind-the-scenes politics, endless gossip and backroom deals. You rarely hear a political speech that attracts your attention.
If I sound angry it’s because I am. I knew that the friend wasn’t making a general question. He was also addressing me. I thought I had avoided the trap of cynicism because I continue to have the deep faith that this country can do better. And because, in an incredibly toxic and difficult environment, I thought I wasn’t letting the surrounding cynicism derail the moral compass that everyone carries inside them when times are hard. But at some point you realize you are accepting things that you shouldn’t be, you lower the bar either because you are trapped in the mentality of “this is how it has always been” or because you believe that there is no other alternative or other path for the country. That is a mistake.
The bar must remain high regardless of what came before, but we must also keep it high for what will follow.
