I think the cynicism, like any tendency, is both learned and dependent on circumstance to continually reinforce. Like what is cynicism if not a deep, fear-based belief that the person ia not capable of enacting meaningful change, and it’s better to take actions that will be rewarded and not punished under whatever power structure they currently exist in? That tendency towards compliance-dressed-as-cleverness can be worked with, we’re not gonna get them on board immediately but there will be a stage where even the cynical calculus will favor leaving a sinking ship.
I’m not sure they’ll try to leave the sinking ship until they’re already swimming, y’know? People who learned that resistance is futile over the course of US hegemony are not going to easily unlearn it. I think it’s happening among young people because they don’t have as many memories of the US being unstoppable. In fact, for people born after 9/11, the US has rarely won.
But for people who remember the US winning the Cold War, it’s going to take a lot more to make them unlearn their cynicism.
I think the cynicism, like any tendency, is both learned and dependent on circumstance to continually reinforce. Like what is cynicism if not a deep, fear-based belief that the person ia not capable of enacting meaningful change, and it’s better to take actions that will be rewarded and not punished under whatever power structure they currently exist in? That tendency towards compliance-dressed-as-cleverness can be worked with, we’re not gonna get them on board immediately but there will be a stage where even the cynical calculus will favor leaving a sinking ship.
I’m not sure they’ll try to leave the sinking ship until they’re already swimming, y’know? People who learned that resistance is futile over the course of US hegemony are not going to easily unlearn it. I think it’s happening among young people because they don’t have as many memories of the US being unstoppable. In fact, for people born after 9/11, the US has rarely won.
But for people who remember the US winning the Cold War, it’s going to take a lot more to make them unlearn their cynicism.