The cynic always acts with ulterior motives. It never acts transparently. In this way, the cynic does not respect established feelings and values ​​or social conventions. He is someone who is shameless, brazen, reckless, impassive, obscene. Generally, the cynic says one thing and does another.
It is not worth mentioning names here, however, in the field of national or local politics, you must certainly know a lot of cynics. The cynic loves to confuse the population. He lives inverting the meaning of words, of history. Usually the cynic speaks of the lie as the truth and the truth as a lie.
Supported by a false opinion that “the majority always wins”, he does not sit in front of the TV, “with his mouth open, waiting for death to arrive”, as Raul Seixas sang. The cynic acts to gain everyone's trust.
The cynic always thinks for his own benefit. He never thinks about the other. When he approaches someone, it's always out of interest, to take advantage of something. Usually the cynic is a “sentimental kidnapper”. When the cynic throws himself into public office, it is to serve his own interests. In this way, the cynic believes that doing politics is the quickest way to put the lives of family, friends and relatives in order.
First, we are radically against the idea that “the majority always wins”, this is because we recognize the existence of dominant ideologies. Marx once said that “The dominant ideas of an age are always the ideas of the ruling class”. The cynic's greatest desire is to hide the truth.
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Second, every cynic thinks that politics is the easiest and fastest way to get ahead in life. The tragic thing is that little by little, the citizen ends up getting used to this whole situation. Worse, the indignation, when it appears, ends up being channeled towards anti-democratic targets, such as, for example, closing the National Congress, persecution of poor migrants and so on.
Generally, the cynic, in its entirety, is intelligent and has a very high humor. He has the ability to observe the reality that surrounds him and to perceive an event quickly. The cynic rarely trusts people, in fact suspects everyone. The cynic is almost always an opportunist.
The antidote to cynicism must be freedom of speech, sexual freedom, freedom of opinion, freedom of action, political freedom. Norberto Bobbio, contemporary Italian sociologist, considers that political freedom must be an elementary condition for decision-making. Political freedom means quality education for all, freedom of professorship, respect for ethnic minorities.
Thus, the greatest virtue of political freedom is the exclusion of cynicism. In other words, by exchanging cynicism for ethics, the politician would renounce earthly goods and pleasures until achieving total independence from vital and social needs, as Antisthenes thought, disciple of Socrates, founder of cynicism in Greek philosophy.
In any case, I am absolutely certain that the cynicism that can be seen in current Spanish politics is not that defended by the Greek philosopher. For Antisthenes, Cynic philosophy allowed man, in the first place, to achieve self-knowledge and to arrive at the truth of things.
Thus, the true meaning of the cynical philosophy was to lead the human being to happiness, understood as not being affected by the bad things in life and conventionalisms, which were valued according to the degree of conformity and reason. In short, the cynicism that is currently seen in Spanish politics is the misplaced version of the famous expression “cara de pau”.
