From nice to cynical in five steps.

I always have to go back to the Thin Man movies to find people I can relate to. Consider the necessity that links this chain together:

• the actors of the 30s were nice,
• the actors of the 50s were accommodating,
• the actors of the 70s were overbearing,
• the actors of the 80s were demanding,
• the actors of the 2000s were bitter,
• the actors of the 2010s are cynical.

The difference between nice and accommodating is of course external, somebody asking a nice person to do something that doesn't come naturally to him. In this case: to act grandiose.

But then... the grandiose example breeds overbearing followers, the overbearing example breeds demanding followers, the demanding example breeds bitter followers and the bitter example breeds cynical followers.

Down the drain. And all because of the likes of Gregory Peck? And I really like the man (because of his modest self irony). You really do reap what you sow. An experiment in self governance it surely is, only not particularly sacred - nor blessed.

It would of course be nothing. Except for the fact that it is real.