Are You a Cynic — or Do You Have Faith in the Future?

We live in a time when many people have lost their hope, faith, and optimism, as war and violence, corruption and greed, environmental degradation and loss seem to dominate our disunified world. 

This pessimistic outlook produces a deep sense of despair.

As a result, disillusionment and hopelessness have seeped into our very pores. Many of us have become cynics. Young people even fear bringing children into such a troubled world, seeing corrosive decline everywhere, holding no hope of ever overcoming it, and believing that our main human motivation comes from purely selfish concerns.  

RELATED: Becoming an Idealist in a Cynical World

Perhaps, some thinkers and writers have even suggested, our selfish natures will ultimately doom the entire human race. This foundational idea — that we’re all essentially selfish and self-serving — underlies most laissez-faire, free-market capitalism, which posits that people only act in their own best interests.

But that just isn’t true. 

Almost everyone has some altruism in them, some selflessness and spirituality and caring for others. Yes, our social and economic systems can make it difficult to express that caring, but that doesn’t mean we’re all basically grasping, greedy, selfish creatures.

The Baha’i teachings say that we have two natures — a lower and a higher one — and that we each have the power to choose which one to center our lives around:

In man there are two natures: his spiritual or higher nature and his material or lower nature. In one he approaches God, in the other he lives for the world alone. Signs of both these natures are to be found in men. In his material aspect he expresses untruth, cruelty and injustice; all these are the outcome of his lower nature. The attributes of his Divine nature are shown forth in love, mercy, kindness, truth and justice, one and all being expressions of his higher nature. Every good habit, every noble quality belongs to man’s spiritual nature, whereas all his imperfections and sinful actions are born of his material nature.

When we focus on our spiritual nature and work to grow and enhance it, we’re happier and less cynical beings.

You may have noticed something about cynics, though. Cynicism rarely seems to occur to anyone who actively works toward the betterment of the world. If you’re making an effort, every day, to help others, you’re much more likely to have a positive, hopeful, non-cynical outlook — in other words, to welcome the future. As Abdu’l-Baha said, “… the past is gone and forgotten, the present is fleeting, and the future is within the realm of hope.”

You might think it would work differently — that those who actively engage with people’s pressing problems would have more negative views of the future, and those who have little contact with others and their troubles would have a rosier view. But interestingly enough, it works in exactly the opposite way. Studies and polls show, over and over, that mental well-being, happiness, and a positive outlook, along with an optimistic view of the future, all result directly from helping others.

This important realization — that true happiness comes from turning your efforts toward serving others — resonates throughout the Baha’i teachings, as Abdu’l-Baha said in this passage from Star of the West magazine:

… the first bestowal to the world of humanity is happiness, that kind of happiness which is unalterable and ideal. If, by happiness physical enjoyment of material things is meant then the ferocious wolf is made happy because he kills the innocent lamb and satisfies his hunger for a few hours. This is not happiness. Happiness is a psychological condition created in brain, mind and heart, the effect of which works out from the centre to the circumference. For example, after many days and nights of reflection the philosopher unravels a seemingly unsolvable problem. As the result, a wave of supreme happiness surges through his being. The philanthropist comes to the assistance of thousands of half-starved, half-clothed, afflicted people of a nation. In his deed he wins much contentment. An engineer spans a large river with a suspension or cantilever bridge, or an architect makes the design of an edifice. Each finds true enjoyment in his work.

In 1912, Abdu’l-Baha gave a talk in Chicago where he used the symbols of fog, clouds, and mist to make a similar point about the Baha’i teachings and their hope for the future:

This morning the city is enveloped in fog and mist. How beautiful is a city brilliant with sunshine. Just as these mists and vapors conceal the phenomenal sun, so human imaginations obscure the Sun of Truth. Consider the radiant glory of the great solar center of our planetary system: how wonderful the sight, how its splendor illumines vision until clouds and mists veil it from the eye. In the same way, the Sun of Truth becomes veiled and hidden by the superstitions and imaginations of human minds…

Inasmuch as these clouds and human vapors of superstition hide the light of the spiritual Sun, we must put forth our utmost endeavor to dispel them. May we unite in this and be enlightened to accomplish it, for the Sun is one and its radiance and bounty universal. All the inhabitants of earth are recipients of the bounty of the one phenomenal sun, and none are preferred above others; so, likewise, all receive the heavenly bestowals of the Word of God; none are specialized as favorites; all are under its protection and universal effulgence… It is most certain that if human souls exercise their respective reason and intelligence upon the divine questions, the power of God will dispel every difficulty, and the eternal realities will appear as one light, one truth, one love, one God and a peace that is universal.

RELATED: What Gives People Hope for the Future?

If you find yourself doomscrolling, depressed about the state of our world, or lost in the foggy mist of cynicism, and you’d much rather add to your hopefulness, try following Abdu’l-Baha’s advice by finding someone who needs your help. 

When you give them the help they need, that altruistic action will begin to rebuild and restore your faith in our collective future.