Negativism and Cynicism are too EASY

John Hawkins over at Right Wing News has a list of the most annoying liberals of 2005. It’s a well-written piece, but I think I am losing my taste for these sorts of compilations.

I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but does there seem to be too many of these “Worst” and “most annoying” sort of lists going around? Are we conservative bloggers over-focusing on such things?

I’m just asking, and I mean no disrespect to John, or to any specific blogger. I am simply wondering, as a blogger who has herself participated in a few of these collective diss-fests if we are not putting too much energy into negativism, whether it’s actually constructive or just mean-spirited. It doesn’t matter if the left does these things, compiles these lists; for conservatives, some of this just seems to not be the best use of our time or our minds. Yes, gathering together such lists can be useful for regrouping a base that is beginning to get distracted, or starting to fracture, but then shouldn’t they be “occasional” things? They seem to be all over the blogosphere, lately.

And it’s not simply list-making. I don’t recall what blog sent me to this photo-essay decrying France’s social policies, but the thing seemed a trifle spiteful and a bit of a stretch, “ooh, look at all the homeless people in Paris! That’s French policy for you!”

Except, I looked at the pictures and thought they could have been taken in almost any city in the US. You would not have to work hard to take the same shots in Baltimore, or San Francisco, or Chicago, or Detroit, or LA, or even NYC, which is a city that is – overall – in pretty good shape…so what’s the point? Are French homeless more emotionally satisfying to look at than American homeless? Our policies are not the same, but the problem exists in both places, and under every administration. Acknowledging this, how do you then justify the superior sneer?

We on the right have tons of legitimate differences with folks on the left; on some issues our whole worldviews are utterly and absolutely at odds. There is more than enough to debate about, already, and too many subjects on which we may never be able to come together. We don’t really need to expend our time and energy on projects that simply come down to pointing a finger and saying, “ewwww…look at them” do we?

Isn’t that best left to the perpetual adolescents who live for it?

As I said, I have participated in making these lists, and I may again, sometime in the future, because to some degree it is a quirk of humanity that we like to categorize things, but just now – perhaps because it’s the start of a new year – it seems like we’re doing an awful lot of it, maybe too much. I apologize to anyone who finds this insulting – it is not meant to insult any particular blogger, or to single anyone out for a lambasting. I’m simply unspooling a thread of thought as I process it, and yes, I am pointing the finger at myself, too.

Negativity and cynicism are too easy to embrace. I know, because when back when I was a liberal, cynicism was the tool by which most of my opinions were shaped; it was simpler than thinking and always gave me a “moral” edge. And because I am human and sometimes inclined to laziness (and sometimes just eager to feel prideful and morally superior and “too smart to fall for” anything) I still find myself falling into cynicism (particularly about the fourth estate, for example) and going negative, because it IS so very easy to do.

But if we are aware of how easy it is to fall into such patterns, and how childish and pointless they ultimately are, then perhaps we should be on guard against them, because in the end if all the blogs promote are cynics on the left and cynics on the right…well…what good thing will that ever lead to?

Not all blogs embrace cynicism, of course, at least not habitually…but it’s worth thinking about: when does constructive criticism become negativity; when does healthy skepticism become cynicism, and do our better natures get buried under such easy weight?

Cynicism and negativity are like easy-to-make snacks, full of empty calories which fatten you up (and slow you down) while offering no nutrition. Feeding on them gives your body (and your mind) nothing on which to build, or grow, or heal.

I keep thinking how in Christ there is nothing negative. And I like efforts such as Kevin Aylward’s Blogger Awards because they focused on positives and did not segregate unduly: both conservative and liberal blogs were nominated in those categories that were not specific to one side or another, it wasn’t just an “aren’t WE all that” list. Maybe we need to do more of that, and less of the other – try to find something good to say about the other guys, now and then.

I know, some will say that the left is incapable of extending a sentence of good-will toward the right, so why bother – President Bush tried changing the tone and got his extended hand smacked back – yeah, I know, I know. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

Remember Atticus Finch, in To Kill A Mockingbird, who explained to his son (after losing a case and watching his unjustly accused black client fall victim to entrenched racism), “just because we’re licked a hundred times over is no reason not to try.” A positive act, upon being rebuffed, does nothing to injure the party offering it.

Clearly, I have work to do on myself. It’s worth thinking about, is alls I’m sayin’.