So, I've been a terrible blogger this month. I don't think I've blogged a single post. Actually, I've written quite a few, but I didn't post them because they were all kind of negative.
It's just too easy to be jaded and cynical. I think artists and writers who rely on cynicism are lazy. I mean, am I the only one who ever thought "if I hear one more anti-war song I'm going to blow my own head off". Negativity isn't depth. It takes almost no creativity or effort to be jaded. In fact, it's where you end up when you've stopped trying all together.
Still, it's always a temptation because you'll always have an audience when you want to say something controversial. People love angry posts. They love it when you give them permission to sulk. They love it when you justify their own offenses.
Let me see if I can think of more cynical things to say about being cynical...
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War is a really terrible thing, and its something that seems so out of our hands. How can we change it? No matter who we vote for our wars continue. I think a lot of people want to see change when it comes to war and they don't know what else to do other that to say something, to create awareness, and it leaves us pretty cynical. What else can we do?
ReplyDeleteThat 2nd Paragraph could not be more dead on! As long as your posts are that good, posting once a month is nothing to be ashamed of.
ReplyDelete@Alexander
ReplyDeleteI hear ya bro, there are some good anti-war songs too. And we do need music to have conversations about that kind of stuff. I'm not anti-anti-war songs, I'm not even against complaining but it gets ridiculous when young writers feel they have to be angry to be deep (myself included).
I think the song "Devils and Dust" is one of the greatest anti-war song ever written. It creates a clear statement, but doesn't marginalize anyone, and that actually makes the statement more potent and convicting.
"I've got my finger on the trigger, but I don't know who to trust"
It paints a picture that raises questions but in the end it allows the listener to draw their own conclusion. Now that is a heck of a songwriter.
Good post : I agree it's easy to be jaded and cynical. Laziness and lack of creativity. According to a great American Rabbi the same applies to profanity.
ReplyDeleteYou can tell a good songwriter when you know the persuations of the writer and disagree with his outlook on life or political persuations etc. but like/love some of the songs they have written about the very things you disagree with them on, Knowing full well where they came from!! That is pretty good. He's a JERK!!! LOL!! 8-)
ReplyDeleteSo true. It's difficult to remain positive and go about awfull things with a sense of excitement and anticipation for the next good thing.
ReplyDeleteQuite suprised that this comes to mind, but to quote Conan O' Brien: "I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get."
To be positive but real and true to what is going on is the hardest. It is easy to subside in superficiality and ignore the depth of the events happening in the 'real' world (outside your thinking).
As a melancholist, although it is far from being very natural to me, I would like to stand mere positivism as well as mere dejection with a cheerful and honest sense of awe and childlike amazement at what this world (and its Initiator) has to offer.
We can wage war in the heavens, even with music. Things in the natural can then begin to shift. Creating heavenly sounds through music and stirring up an atmosphere of worship and love can shake the ground. I think we're on the brink of revolutionary new sounds that are gonna usher in God in a whole new way.
ReplyDeleteI can see where you're coming from. Writing music myself, when the circumstances are right, I can find it hard to be honest without becoming jaded. There's no point in writing a song when my heart is heavy if it's only going to make it heavier. So I can sing, "This is me feeling like the creek outside my house; it only goes where it's been, it only ends where it ends," but if I don't sing, "But God come overflow my shores; take me where I've never been," if there's no "I'll yet praise You," for every, "Dark night of my soul," then I'm only reinforcing my own negative emotions.
ReplyDeleteIf you look David, there was a lot of honesty, there was a lot of negative emotions he expressed, but it seems there was almost always a "yet". I think you become jaded and cynical the moment you forget the "yet"s.
@John Mark I agree, Devil's and Dust is so poetic in what it says. It doesn't yell particularly at anything, it just makes a statement.
ReplyDeleteCynicism, regardless of it being useless or not, is still a part of being human. Maybe its not the best place to write from, but sometimes its the most honest thing i can be. I agree that most cynical songs don't have a lot of depth, and i do try to stay away from them, because there have been plenty of them. Some people write for the sake of cynicism and others write from a place of honesty and imagination, and i really appreciate those songs with imagination.
ReplyDeleteI also found one of the definition of "cynical" very interesting: showing contempt for accepted standards of honesty or morality by one's actions, esp. by actions that exploit the scruples of others.
It may be wrong, but it can still be honest.
Here are some lyrics to a song I wrote in a pretty cynical state of mind, it may not be that deep, or really effect the world, but it rings true in my own heart. I think the most important songs you can write are the ones that really resonate with you.
Anyways, I really admire you as a songwriter, and I love your honesty. Enough rambling...here's the lyrics:
Televangelist
"you say you've got the answer
well ask yourself
is this something you deserve
more than someone else
you say you're a prophet
speaking for God to man
but if God is love
why's there a gun in your hand?
televangelist, stop telling me
how to exist, i don't want to be
your prize, another trophy
for you to wave around
you keep running your mouth waging wars
but this isn't what i was looking for
i'll just wait for someone with more
love to come around
the blind are leading the blind
into a fancy house
but Jesus is out on the street
and he's crying out
"I never knew you seer,
get away from me,
I never knew you healer,
and you probably don't recognize me"
i feel like crying out to God
and i don't want your help
i feel like crying out to God
for help "
I'd love some criticism/ feedback on this.
Grace & Peace
"It takes almost no creativity or effort to be jaded. In fact, it's where you end up when you've stopped trying all together."
ReplyDeletethat was like a 2x4 to my face...and I loved it haha
The hard part is when you deal with the temptation to be bitter..overcome it..and love the very people or situations you want to be cynical about
cynicism truly is awful!!! i don't think it is the best way to stir up feelings of injustice or discontentment, or even to raise awareness, but i have to admit that it has at times made me think far more about things.. except without Jesus, cynicism tends to end up in despair, anguish, and hopelessness.
ReplyDeletethe other night i dreamt that Cynicism was a massive, greasy man, towering over me, and he was speaking to me in my dream, and the more he spoke, the more i felt suffocated, and like my life was going to end -a feeling i had experienced in reality when i got held up in cape town - and my dream ended with me somehow running away from him... since then it's been a constant reminder to me that cynicism in NO way brings life or solutions or hope! i'm incredibly grateful God gave me that dream :)