Helen’s church rummage sale on their lawn. It was peak Toronto the Good, with so much of this city represented. Remembering the good doesn’t mean forgetting about the problems - how could we? - but to use Harvey Milk’s refrain, “you’ve got to have hope.”Ī few weekends ago, I wandered for days through the Do West Fest on Dundas Street. Another cure is to remind yourself of all the good in Toronto. If you can visualize that in your mind, it means it’s possible and cures the cynicism syndrome. It’s important to actually be for something and have a vision of a better city.
Cynicism is a form of bias and can obscure reality, just like people who fashion themselves contrarians: if you’re against everything, what are you for? Yet with municipal politics, the quicksand of cynicism is a challenge to avoid. The most positive Pollyanna can turn into a cynic.Ĭynical writing and thinking are useless though. I used to think that you can fight city hall, but the common version of that cliché seems more often true: you can’t. There’s a deep culture of “no” at city hall when it should be “let’s figure out how to do what people want, like and love.” There’s a feeling that official communications are untrustworthy and institutions are broken. There’s always some mistruth, injustice, inequality, inexplicable policy or officiously useless regulation. There’s always something that just should not be the way it is and some clearly obvious and better way to do it. That title comes to mind when writing and thinking about local Toronto politics, but my version is, “The War Against Cynicism” - it’s easy to give into cynicism if you spend any time following municipal politics.
It nimbly sums up the late British author’s constant struggle to be fresh, original and true to one’s self. “The War Against Cliché” is the title of a collection of Martin Amis’s writing.
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