{"id":6755,"date":"2014-03-19T12:48:51","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T16:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=6755"},"modified":"2024-09-11T21:47:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T01:47:29","slug":"cynicism-rodney-dangerfield-get-respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/19\/cynicism-rodney-dangerfield-get-respect\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynicism and Rodney Dangerfield Get No Respect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Is the denigration of cynicism simply a trick to spawn mass gullibility? Maybe it is only a coincidence that the people who denounce cynicism the loudest are politicians seeking more power.<\/p>\n<p>President Richard Nixon declared on April 30, 1973, the day his top White House aides resigned over their role in the Watergate scandal, &#8220;I reject the cynical view that politics is inevitably, or even usually, a dirty business.&#8221; Obama has been railing against cynicism ever since he launched his presidential campaign in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>The great Dilbert cartoon spurred me to meander into my old writings on cynicism:<\/p>\n<p>From the conclusion of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lost-Rights-Destruction-American-Liberty\/dp\/0312123337\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1395247493&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=james+bovard\">Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty<\/a> (1994): The Founding Fathers succeeded in creating a government where individual rights and liberties were respected because they were cynical about political power: they realized that, as George Washington wrote, government was &#8220;fire.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>From the conclusion of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Freedom-Chains-State-Demise-Citizen\/dp\/0312214413\/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1395247493&amp;sr=8-4&amp;keywords=james+bovard\">Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen<\/a> (1999): We need to expect less from government and more from humanity. It is not cynical to have more faith in freedom than in subjugation. It is not cynical to have more faith in individuals vested with rights than in bureaucrats armed with power. It is not cynical to suspect that governments that have cheated so often in the past may not be dealing straight today.<\/p>\n<p>From the conclusion of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Bush-Betrayal-James-Bovard\/dp\/140396727X\/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1395247493&amp;sr=8-15&amp;keywords=james+bovard\">Bush Betrayal<\/a> (2004): If the president is reelected, the more cynical Americans become, the less dangerous Bush will be.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Attention-Deficit-Democracy-James-Bovard\/dp\/1403971080\/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1395247493&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=james+bovard\">Attention Deficit Democracy<\/a> (2006): In politics, &#8220;positive thinking&#8221; is often a slave\u2019s virtue, something people do to delude themselves about the burdens and chains being placed upon them.<\/p>\n<p>*It is cynical to expect that humanity\u2019s problems will be solved by finding better masters, rather than by removing the burdens and binds on common citizens.<\/p>\n<p>****<\/p>\n<p>This is not a blanket endorsement of cynicism. I have seen plenty of folks overdose on it. But taken in moderate doses as a tonic, it can help vaccinate against prevailing political delusions.<\/p>\n<p>On Twitter @jimbovard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Is the denigration of cynicism simply a trick to spawn mass gullibility? Maybe it is only a coincidence that the people who denounce cynicism the loudest are politicians seeking more power. President Richard Nixon declared on April 30, 1973, the day his top White House aides resigned over their role in the Watergate scandal, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cynicism and Rodney Dangerfield Get No Respect - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/19\/cynicism-rodney-dangerfield-get-respect\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cynicism and Rodney Dangerfield Get No Respect - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Is the denigration of cynicism simply a trick to spawn mass gullibility? Maybe it is only a coincidence that the people who denounce cynicism the loudest are politicians seeking more power. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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