Cynicism

Mike’s
Pith & Wind cont.
Fortunately, the musty halls of every single-sex (male) secondary educational
institution that ever was, haunted as they inevitably are by variously amusing
and resentful, but universally misogynist masters, taught us impressionable
acne-faced
boys that we could exact a subtle, but satisfying revenge on womankind, employing
the very weapon our mothers had so unstintingly provided us with: i.e. speech.
Not the burbling, inconsequential variety of speech that women are so skilled
at, mind you. I’m speaking of the rapier-like verbal thrusts, the razor-sharp
juliennes, the delicate feints, parries and ripostes that can appear to miss
their mark entirely at the time, the cumulative effect of which, however, is
to leave the victim storming off at some point in several directions at the
same time, hopelessly defeated – in our minds, anyway.
There is a breaking point, however. While your loved one may not actually appreciate
or understand the obscure points that you are making over and around her helpless
and inadequate girly constructions, she knows something’s going on, and
she definitely knows when you’ve gone too far.
This is when the female side that is buried in every man must start ringing
the alarm bells and alert the merry bloke directing the splatter movie for the
benefit of his schoolboy chums, otherwise the female target can spoil all the
fun and say something very serious indeed, and then we’ll have an Incident
that will never be forgotten, and you, despite what they say, will never be
forgiven.
Cynicism – to be used with care.

A couple more sayings I picked out that resonated for me:
‘Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.’ Napoleon Bonaparte
‘Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things
for granted.’ Aldous Huxley