The Cynicism of the West: when Analysis becomes Paralysis

In the West (and probably not only in the West) we are drowning in cynicism, sarcasm and irony; in the deconstruction of everything in the name of “progress” and “but is it possible, in 2024? “, as if the number of the year automatically implies something essential and inevitable; in explaining everything (even the unexplainable, despite the self-indulgence in attempts to explain behaviors or events, good or bad) with reference to “science”–for most, this translates into blind adherence to labels assigned nilly-willy by ridiculous oversimplified classifiers with tragically incomplete confusion matrices, and into appeals to the authority of corruptible people (i.e.: humans) without satisfactory explanations when striving to follow the proverbial thread to its supposedly definitive end, to the limits of human intellect and understanding, even when striving to comprehend the incomprehensible.

“There is no black and white, only shades of grey” and other such pseudo-intellectual bromides have become the easy hand-waving of morally-difficult yet also crucial distinctions; we relativize everything; for everything there is a little drawer with some convenient label that provides us with “scientific absolution”, and no one can judge anything–except when something does trigger some trauma (another convenient label, this one), and then a lot comes to the surface of the otherwise supposedly sober and self-ruling intellectual executive who pretends that everything can be broken down into just three and a half categories (don’t forget the “Other” category that The McKinsey Way taught us! ) that will fit on a PowerPoint slide, or will fill a pithy tweet with exaggerated bluster.

When something doesn’t make sense and the political correctness of the modern times prevents us from separating evil from good, beautiful from ugly (usually: grotesque), moral from immoral, rational from irrational, etc., we kick the ball to the bleachers again and again in the name of rationality (almost always: rationalization) and the easy way out: “I’m educated” (therefore, with “μόρφωσις”? with “παιδεία”? Are you sure you are not merely trained?).

We pursue studies (e.g., towards an MBA degree, because it conveys a lot of implications to some employers, and also a lot of unflattering things that we don’t want to say out loud) and learn to analyze situations with precision and in detail; to make assumptions and scenarios as if we are generals and the future of humanity is at stake; to put it all on spreadsheets and slide decks with pathologically aligned elements (as if the format will demolish our argument, not the quality of our argumentation itself, or the thousands of unpredictable and unknown factors that reality tends to be pesky with), and we learn to present it by pretending to be a “disinterested party”.

We all that under pretenses of being exceptional giants of “leadership” (what arrogant nonsense) and masters of impeccable, undeniably rational thinking; as if everything is under our control and everything will crumble in the face of our titanic logic and thorough analysis–for which we have paid handsomely in parchments and certificates–even when it comes to complex systems, multifaceted situations, relationships and communication with a transmission factor much smaller than unity, in organizations filled with people, preferences, value differences, veritable zoos of personalities, and a myriad of agency problems between people’s interests, most of whom are fighting at least one personal battle. Come on Atlas, lighten up!

Especially in Greece, we especially like to “let go” through grumbling, by complaining as “know-it-alls” and explaining the world with utter confidence in a macho tone, and more and more, with a great readiness for self-victimization; we like to escape reality with outbursts of gloating, arrogance, pretentiousness, fake decency, and smugness, such as memes, silly and emotionally empty newspeak/doublespeak slang, buzzwords and trends, misanthropic TV trash, hubristic insults and “huehuehue”-level puns about public figures, trash-TV outtakes that drip poison into our souls, passionate online debates of coffee-shop (“καφενείο”) quality (at least in a coffee shop they know each other and don’t hide behind a screen), class envy and inferiority complexes masquerading as easy excuses, and other similarly childish and irresponsible displays.

Especially in Greece, we have an opinion on everything at all times , even if we know nothing about the subject on which we express an opinion with aplomb and vanity–you see, that’s how we understand democracy–anyway, was it not use who invented it? After all, we are blameless; we are carved of marble like the Parthenon; we have sunshine here (not like the Central or Northern Europeans with their clouds, ew!, ick!); we love to refer to “our ancient ancestors” and other such tales that lull our conscience and our decades of nurtured learned helplessness to a self-gratifying sleep. We blame again and again the others; the circumstances; the geopolitical interests; the Great Powers; The Powers That Be; the politicians; the international organizations; the economic crisis and its aftermath; the X and the Y. Never ourselves. Don’t worry however; this is not a purely Greek phenomenon, although we are (once again) way ahead of all others abroad.

It’s always someone else’s fault for our own situation–it’s anyone and anything other than ourselves and how we (don’t) handle everyday situations and dilemmas that are part of life with a readiness to take on any cost of our (best possible, limited, and never perfect, since factually impossible) judgment and decisions; from terminating (or at least raise our disagreement with) a terminal (if convenient) professional partnership, to breaking off an already long-expired (if very convenient) personal relationship, whatever its nature, to deciding to leave familiar and therefore comfortable (if miserable) situations to go abroad for a few years to learn the obvious first-hand: that people are more alike than they are different, and that no, it’s not the same everywhere; Greece is not heaven or hell, just as (almost) no other place is perfect or purely doomed because it lacks sunshine, frappe, souvlaki, and because people don’t consider it cool to go out for a “night out” at one o’clock in the morning lest they should be called uncool.

What a horror, huh? Trade-offs everywhere! Choices; conscious compromises; alternatives to be weighed; critical thinking to be applied; and the ability to put our faith into something beyond that vapid “YOLO”. All that which, by applying coffee-shop-banter simplifications, by becoming mouthpieces for the (psychological, value-focused, family-derived, political-party-affiliated, etc.) schemas of others and our own worst selves, and by being willfully blind, will never be transformed into decisions, actions, sufferings and lessons, so that these 80 or so years on Earth (if God gives us 80…) can be something interesting; something worthwhile for those around us and at least for ourselves beyond hedonism, consumption, and a humdrum but comfortable existence as biomass.

Does this way of thinking and behaving have a positive effect in the long run? If so, I stand corrected. Perhaps it’s easier to judge by the outcome; and so I doubt that focusing on the above is, in the end, an aid in our lives, as opposed to making difficult, critical decisions, and pursuing a conscious disconnection from the Media of Mass Misinformation and Mass Paranoia and anti-social “networks”, the mindless “celebrities” with their dull whims, the hollow “influencers”, the random (self-appointed “realists”, i.e.: miserable) “friends” who try to cover their own chronic lack of courage by reducing everything to triviality and by coping that a familiarly miserly existence is, if you think about it, actually bliss; as well as other useless distractions of our attention and of our really minimal time from things on which we can have direct and immediate (or even indirect) influence, even by small acts of kindness and prudence; that is: through a relentless focus on our immediate family, friends and professional environment, and on anything to which we can devote time and grey matter creatively (and not as second- and third-hand consumers of ideas, substances and delicacies), even exploratorily, even if it will not or is not guaranteed to bring us more € soon (or ever!)

There is no particular reason for this post, except as the enshrining into a future memory of a conversation with a dear childhood friend tonight as a review of five years of my return to the beautiful, ugly, imperfect, occasionally positively amazing, sometimes truly irritating, culturally and historically extraordinary and troubled Greece–which, as one of the 195 countries in the world, sure “is what it is”, but it is also to some extent what you want it to be, what you pay attention to, what you intend to make of it; with all its whims, peculiarities, virtues and drawbacks; with its good and its bad; with its idiots, but also with its People (with a capital P), whether they are politicians or “commoners” (i.e. not a “celebrity” or “influencer”) or whether they are the ones who park vertically on a sidewalk in the center of Athens in their Smart ForTwo, to demonstrate for the umpteenth time in a decade to all of us how smart their vehicle purchase was of a choice before the financial crisis violently highlighted the fact that some things objectively take priority, while others, simply, are there to give us something to talk about.

The following article is vaguely relevant; but it too, inevitably, suffers from many of the above, as do most of the articles I occasionally write and post on the blog . Most likely (nay–with certainty!), the same is true of this post itself. After all, I’m Greek myself.

Data, decision-making, incentives, and hidden agendas (and a certain rebranding)