Cynicism: a Cheap Substitute for Thought

I recently gave a carefully considered answer on Quora, one of my last, to which someone responded simply, “Keep dreaming”.

I don’t object to criticism; indeed, we consider it vital to improvement in a systematic approach. Cynicism, however, is a mindset that offers unthoughtful hostility to new ideas, especially those proposing improvements.

That comment wasn’t the reason I’m leaving Quora. The reason is that, looking back over years in which I’ve made thousands of postings, very few have led to meaningful interactions and fewer still to new alliances. The final experience was when I spent many hours preparing a response to a question from a Verified Quora user.

Verification on Quora is not generally available. It is offered only to celebrities, and then only–supposedly–after Quora’s inspection of government-issued ID. So I trusted their representation that this was, indeed, the individual in question.

Subsequent private interaction persuaded me that, in fact, this was not the person, and that therefore I cannot trust Quora.

Not wishing to close this blog posting on a negative note, I will call attention to this blog: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7254431331097415681/

In it, historian Rutger Bregman highlights the real-world case of a group of boys marooned together on an island. It turned out in a very positive manner; entirely different than the cynicism of Lord of The Flies. Yet, somehow, it’s Lord of the Flies being taught in high schools, not the Boys of Ata.