"a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions"

#1 = People are fundamentally too stupid, etc.

#2 = Therefore they need to tricked, coerced, or "frame", et al.

#3 = Even if you give them the power, they'll fuck it up

Equals #4 = Therefore the situation is hopeless?

Hmm, very interesting food for thought, most definitely.

What's interesting is that since as far as any history book or engraved tablet can record back to Hammurabi, #1-3 IS the prevailing wisdom of those who rule, whether that be kings, priests, kingly priests, nobility by bloodline, economic elites or the wealthy, etc.

So how is it that throughout the entire history of recorded humanity the people who HAVE ruled and HAVE made the decisions and HAVE had the power and wealth have had this exact belief?  Is it "cynicism" or or is it a pretty realistic way of staying in power?  Because it seems to work pretty damned good.

What IS ironic however is that of course I've just used a logical fallacy because there are TONS of examples when that wasn't so at all - it's just they are in specific CONTEXTS.  

For example you look at a small New England town which relies on the direct vote and you see none of #1-3 or #4 either.  And so on and so forth, from the Paris Commune to indigenous tribes running around Brazil at the moment.  Or the kibbutzim in Israel, etc, etc.

It's only in LARGER groups that you begin to see a division between an elite group of rulers and everyone else and it's exactly then that whoever is in power HAS the four "lethal cynicisms".  And they have them precisely because they KEEP THOSE IN POWER IN POWER.

Any other form of thought is not just different, it's actually revolutionary.  And just so it's clear, I'm 100% for such a revolution ;)  And I don't mean like the Who, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" with just a different set of faces but toting the same 4 "cynicisms", I mean something fundamentally different altogether.

If we're advocating a revolution, then let's do it! ;)

Pax

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