cynicism

Fukuyama__ thesis that history has climaxed with liberal capitalism may have been widely derided, but it is accepted, even assumed, at the level of the cultural unconscious. It should be remembered, though, that even when Fukuyama advanced it, the idea that history had reached a __erminal beach_ was not merely triumphalist. Fukuyama warned that his radiant city would be haunted, but he thought its specters would be Nietzschean rather than Marxian. Some of Nietzsche__ most prescient pages are those in which he describes the __versaturation of an age with history_. __t leads an age into a dangerous mood of irony in regard to itself_, he wrote in Untimely Meditations, __nd subsequently into the even more dangerous mood of cynicism_, in which __osmopolitan fingering_, a detached spectatorialism, replaces engagement and involvement. This is the condition of Nietzsche__ Last Man, who has seen everything, but is decadently enfeebled precisely by this excess of (self) awareness.

You see, cancer is simply nature's way of making you want to die.'Tatsu.

A man may have __is moment,_ and that moment endure for decades, or only for the few seconds it takes for a bullet to travel across a courtyard to the balcony upon which he stands as he exhorts his people to follow him.

Within he felt that faint stirring of derision for the whole business of life which is the salt of the American mentality. Outwardly they are sentimental and enthusiastic and inwardly they are profoundly cynical.

It's nice to be able to do things for other people, isn't it?That's why it's fun to talk in the third person sometimes.

Preferring the nausea of the path to its fated and certain ending.

They tugged plans and ambitions out their asses and held tight to the first that didn't smell so strongly of shit.

We are literally in the heart of Jesus," he said."I thought we were in a church basement, but we are literally in the heart of Jesus.""Someone should tell Jesus," I said. "I mean, it's gotta be dangerous, storing children with cancer in your heart.

Cynicism is one of the terrible obstacles to progress.

His age was indeterminate. But in cynicism and general world weariness, which is a sort of carbon dating of the personality, he was about seven thousand years old.

Life seemed to him to be a narrow cage, and her iron bars were many and dense, and there was only one way out.

The author describes the critic within us as adults as "the selves who live too much in their heads rather than their bodies, who are burdened with too much knowledge about how the world works rather than excited about how it could work or should, who are afraid of being judged and not being loved. Most adults do not live in a world of forgiveness and unconditional love, unless, that is, they have small children.

An idea? An idea won't get you nothing but another idea. You need money, cash, to make anything happen in this doggone world.

Possibly, some cynic, at once merry and bitter, had desired to signify, in this pantomimic scene, that we mortals, whatever our business or amusement--however serious, however trifling--all dance to one identical tune, and, in spite of our ridiculous activity, bring nothing finally to pass.

Capitalism needs war.

We discover truth by asking rapier-like questions that cut through the thick fog of doctrinarism. Artists and philosophers must be subversive: we need these rebellious cynics to ask questions, they must resist cultural norms; seek out truths that are not self-evident and challenge everything. Doubt, not blind belief, is essential for discovering truth.

Nihilism, cynicism, sarcasm, and orgasm.

Didn't Chains tell you about the Golden Theological Principle?""The what?""The single congruent aspect of every known religion. The one shared, universal assumption about the human condition.""What is it?""He said that life boils down to standing in line to get shit dropped on your head. Everyone's got a place in the queue, you can't get out of it, and just when you start to congratulate yourself on surviving your dose of shit, you discover that line is actually circular.