Cynical Reflections: thoughts from a tub: About the Site and Author

This site is dedicated to rescuing Cynicism from the trash-can of history; to restore it to its rightful place as an honorable philosophy and personal strategy for surviving in a hostile world. The periods in history when cynicism flourished were those where society had become morally bankrupt and ordinary people felt alienated and abandoned. Thoughts from a Tub provides a repository for quiet or noisy reflection to help fill the social and political vacuum in which we currently find ourselves.

READERS WHO WANT A REFERENCE FOR ANY OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS SITE, PLEASE CONTACT ME USING THE CONTACT LINK AND I'LL TRY TO LOCATE IT

original 'occupation', 4th century b.c.

In the Black Sea port of Sinope, in the latter half of the 4th century B.C., the master of the mint was imprisoned for defacing the Persian currency with a chisel stamp. Although exiled from the town, we are not told what part his son played in the affair. But it was this same Diogenes of Sinope who, following a visit to the oracle at Delphi to seek guidance on the affair, coined the slogan that would define Cynicism. For it was Diogenes' declared mission to deface the currency in another sense: to strike out of circulation human beings false values and customs. In deliberate contrast to other philosophers who produced rhetoric and essays to seduce their audiences, Diogenes' 'performances', whether masturbating in public or walking the streets in daylight with a lighted lamp (looking for an honest man), present to the world his own unique treatise on the bankrupt state of human life.

Ian Cutler (alias En, fictional character in his wife Angela's first two novels) is author of: