KYNICISM, CYNICISM AND IMPLICATION FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

Several scholars state that one of the biggest problems facing our democracies today is cynicism.Inspired from the ancient Greek philosophy, cynicism is different from the ancient kynicism. Whilekynicism claims a life lived according to nature, in complete harmony of body and soul, cynicisminvolves a life lived in suspicions and distrust. Kynicism and cynicism both criticize the politicalprocess; both do not trust politics or political figures. The distinction between kynicism andcynicism is due to the fact that a cynical person rejects any kind of convention and despises whathe considers to be false judgement, insisting on living his life according to nature, while cynical aperson has not initially rejected social conventions and the system of values shared by society; theeducation process in our society makes him confused and skeptic regarding the value system sharedby society and makes him notice the relativity of social conventions. The way chosen by a kynicimplies a life lived according to a specific ethics with specific moral laws, while the way chosen bya cynic implies a life with no morality and lack of values.