Diogenes the Cynic was a strange figure. Born in Sinope (modern day Turkey) in 412, he was a man who knew how to cause a controversy.
He was exiled from his native town for defacing currency, moving to Athens where he quickly became famous for causing trouble in what he saw as a corrupt society that only quested for pleasure and personal gain. He was not alone, the Greek philosopher Antisthnenes (born 445 BCE in Athens) said: “Everything that the wise person does conforms to perfect virtue, and pleasure is not only unnecessary, but a positive evil.” He also said, “"I'd rather be mad than feel pleasure."
Sounds like the ranting of a mad man to me!
But the original cynics believed that the purpose of life was to reject all conventional desires for wealth, power and fame, and to instead live in harmony with nature, a simple ’virtuous’ life free from all possessions. They did not consider all pleasure worthless, Antisthenes himself wrote on the enjoyments of “wisely chosen friendship.”
“The cynics believed that the world belonged equally to everyone, and that suffering was caused by false judgments of what was valuable and by the worthless customs and conventions which surrounded society.” Wikipedia
Not all that crazy after all…
However, Diogenes was a philosopher who was not satisfied simply talking the talk, he believed virtue was better illuminated in action than words, and therefore made a vow of poverty, begging for a living and sleeping in a tub in the marketplace.
His most notorious philosophical stunt (still illuminated in the tarot today in the card of the Hermit,) was to carry a lit lantern through the streets of Athens in the daytime, and when one passer by asked him what he was doing, he replied, “looking for an honest man.”
His various ploys gathered as much positive as negative attention, one man Crates of Thebes giving away a large fortune so he could live a life of Cynical poverty in Athens.
It was common in the streets of Imperial Rome in the 1st century to find Cynics begging and preaching through the cities of the Empire. It would be hard to draw comparison these days (unless Big Issue vendors suddenly developed their own school of philosophy.)
“In the second century the Romans finally felt secure enough to tolerate diversity and Rome witnessed the proliferation of a bewildering variety of cults and philosophies…Just as Hollywood stars today traipse from one new cult to another in search of something more than money and fame, so rich Romans also liked to spend their leisure time dabbling in new mysteries.” Timothy Freke, Laughing Jesus.
Although the Cynics popularity waned in the late 5th century much of its rhetoric lived on and was adopted by early Christianity (prior to 325 BCE) and absorbed into Stoicism.
Which leads to an interesting question: If Jesus had been born in Athens, would he have simply been referred to as a cynic? Is there anything written in the Bible, considering the above, that argues he was not? “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24)
Conversely, it was at he time of the second century when a lesser known Christian philosopher named Justin first moved to Rome. Desperate to be taken seriously, after being rejected by both the Pythagorean and Platonic schools, he began his own cult. It was in his writing that we first hear of Jesus being but to death by Pontius Pilot.
Bares thinking about…
Whichever is the way of things, it takes a remarkable individual to internalize the lessons of life to the point that they become the lesson. Very few are capable of both withdrawing from society to seek knowledge of self, and returning from isolation to share this knowledge with others. Most of us exist only as society.
It is so much easier to be a cynic these days. American director Ken Burns even argues, “…We too often make choices based on the safety of cynicism, and what we're lead to is a life not fully lived. Cynicism is fear, and it's worse than fear - it's active disengagement.”
How far the apple has fallen from the tree of Diogenes, who lived very unsafely due to his choices based on cynicism, and it is doubtful that anyone could argue that his life was wasted; he was the living embodiment of philosophical showmanship, never could he be accused of being afraid or disengaged.
In truth I believe we could all do with being a little more cynical, a little less willing to believe the hype, a little more willing to follow our way and find our own truth. As George Bernard Shaw said, “The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”
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