Curmudgeons
Dictionaries define curmudgeon as a churlish, irascible fellow;
a cantankerous old codger. The origin of the word is unknown,
but it might come from an old Scottish word that meant "murmur"
or "mumble," or from the French coeur mechant, "evil heart."
The archaic definition made it a synonym for miser, and the word
has had recent currency in a somewhat milder connotation, to describe
a not entirely unlikable grouch.
A curmudgeon's reputation for malevolence is undeserved.
They're neither warped nor evil at heart. They don't hate mankind,
just mankind's excesses. They're just as sensitive and soft-hearted
as the next guy, but they hide their vulnerability beneath a crust of
misanthropy. They ease the pain by turning hurt into humor. They snarl
at pretense and bite at hypocrisy out of a healthy sense of outrage.
They attack maudlinism because it devalues genuine sentiment.
They hurl polemical thunderbolts at middle-class values and pop culture
in order to preserve their sanity. Nature, having failed to equip them
with a serviceable denial mechanism, has endowed them with astute
perception and sly wit. Offense is their only defense. Their weapons
are irony, satire, sarcasm, ridicule. Their targets are pretense,
pomposity, conformity, incompetence. And they'll tell you that their
targets are everywhere and multiplying like Smurfs.
Curmudgeons are mockers and debunkers whose bitterness is a symptom
rather than a disease. They can't compromise their standards and can't
manage the suspension of disbelief necessary for feigned cheerfulness.
Their awareness is a curse; they're constantly ticked off because
they're constantly aware of so much to be ticked off about, and they
wish things were better.
Perhaps curmudgeons have gotten a bad rap in the same way that
the messenger is blamed for the message. They have the temerity to
comment on the human condition without apology. They not only refuse
to applaud mediocrity, they howl it down with morose glee. Their versions
of the truth unsettle us, and we hold it against them, even though they
soften it with humor.
Curmudgeons are like Sumo wrestlers; it takes a long time and a lot of
abuse to make one; curmudgeons are also like writers: you're a curmudgeon
only when someone else says you're a curmudgeon.
Curmudgeonry is a perfectly valid response to an increasingly
exasperating world.