The Origin Of My Cynicism
Those who know me know that I have a mish-mash mentality of optimism head-butting against cynicism. I've always had the optimism aspect going in my brain, but the cynicism didn't come until way later in life. I was talking to someone about my cynicism and it occurred to me as we were talking that I can pinpoint the exact moment that my cynicism was born.
I don't the exact date, but I do know that I was in middle school. I used to ride the bus to school and I would take a walkman with me on the bus and I'd listen to the radio. The morning show on 96.3 had a couple guys who would rant about this or that, play some rock music, and do a news segment. One day, a news item came on about the Beanie Baby craze, which I never really did understand. The news item in question: a delivery truck showed up at a McDonalds that included a large shipment of Beanie Babies. A crowd was waiting for the truck, and when it arrived, the crowd bum rushed the truck, threw the driver out, and ran off with every Beanie Baby that was there. They might've even flipped the truck over, I don't remember exactly.
Something inside of me snapped. I grew up fairly sheltered and innocent, always thinking the best about people and trusting them, especially adults. However, after listening to this news report about easily the most absurd thing that had ever crossed my path, I couldn't think the same way about human beings any longer. There was something so frightening, horrible, and hilarious about the very idea that a group of grown men and women could all gather together (whether it was planned or random is irrelevant, they're equally insane) to break into a delivery truck to steal a handful or an armload of little stuffed animals. Some of them could've done some serious jailtime if they had gotten caught, but it was worth it to them to risk prison to bum rush a semi and steal boring childrens' toys that are essentially worthless now.
That news report about human beings behaving in the most ludicrous way set me up to start reading Kurt Vonnegut, become infatuated with the film Dr. Strangelove, and to always be aware of how insane human beings really are. So I guess I really have Beanie Babies to thank for my cynicism. Thanks, Beanie Babies.
I don't the exact date, but I do know that I was in middle school. I used to ride the bus to school and I would take a walkman with me on the bus and I'd listen to the radio. The morning show on 96.3 had a couple guys who would rant about this or that, play some rock music, and do a news segment. One day, a news item came on about the Beanie Baby craze, which I never really did understand. The news item in question: a delivery truck showed up at a McDonalds that included a large shipment of Beanie Babies. A crowd was waiting for the truck, and when it arrived, the crowd bum rushed the truck, threw the driver out, and ran off with every Beanie Baby that was there. They might've even flipped the truck over, I don't remember exactly.
Something inside of me snapped. I grew up fairly sheltered and innocent, always thinking the best about people and trusting them, especially adults. However, after listening to this news report about easily the most absurd thing that had ever crossed my path, I couldn't think the same way about human beings any longer. There was something so frightening, horrible, and hilarious about the very idea that a group of grown men and women could all gather together (whether it was planned or random is irrelevant, they're equally insane) to break into a delivery truck to steal a handful or an armload of little stuffed animals. Some of them could've done some serious jailtime if they had gotten caught, but it was worth it to them to risk prison to bum rush a semi and steal boring childrens' toys that are essentially worthless now.
That news report about human beings behaving in the most ludicrous way set me up to start reading Kurt Vonnegut, become infatuated with the film Dr. Strangelove, and to always be aware of how insane human beings really are. So I guess I really have Beanie Babies to thank for my cynicism. Thanks, Beanie Babies.