What I do like about this topic as it develops, is that it is making me think, especially as the comments grow more thoughtful.
I believe I may have initially confused "cynicism" and "skepticism", so the topic has made me go back to the dictionary to refine my understanding of the terms, and how they apply to me and my personal history.
It has made me do a lot of self-reflection, and a lot of thinking about how other people behave in the world I see around me.
I think there may be a scale or levels of cynicism in an individual personality. As I've already stated, I've grown pretty cynical about what I expect from other people and how I see their motivations. But I'm not so cynical that I don't still see the good in people when they choose to show it, and I'm not quite to the point of holding contempt for everybody I meet and assuming the worst about them from the beginning.
I will say that I don't think cynicism has anything whatsoever to do with intelligence. It's an attitude, a set of decisions and assumptions about how people behave, and an element of personality. The cynic can be anywhere from the low end to genius on the intelligence scale.
Cynical just means not believing in goodness or truth of humanity, in that such things ever exist.
That'll be me, right? :-) I do think that there will always be a degree of interpretation with difficult human notions, but I am an unconditional Merriam-Webster fancier, so here goes, for cynicism:
" 1 : captious, peevish
2 : having or showing the attitude or temper of a cynic: as a : contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives b : based on or reflecting a belief that human conduct is motivated primarily by self-interest "
Comments
I believe I may have initially confused "cynicism" and "skepticism", so the topic has made me go back to the dictionary to refine my understanding of the terms, and how they apply to me and my personal history.
It has made me do a lot of self-reflection, and a lot of thinking about how other people behave in the world I see around me.
I think there may be a scale or levels of cynicism in an individual personality. As I've already stated, I've grown pretty cynical about what I expect from other people and how I see their motivations. But I'm not so cynical that I don't still see the good in people when they choose to show it, and I'm not quite to the point of holding contempt for everybody I meet and assuming the worst about them from the beginning.
I will say that I don't think cynicism has anything whatsoever to do with intelligence. It's an attitude, a set of decisions and assumptions about how people behave, and an element of personality. The cynic can be anywhere from the low end to genius on the intelligence scale.
" 1 : captious, peevish
2 : having or showing the attitude or temper of a cynic: as a : contemptuously distrustful of human nature and motives b : based on or reflecting a belief that human conduct is motivated primarily by self-interest "
My difficulty is that I do not think cynicism is such an innate or holistic attitude as to be as absolute as you describe, for the main.
I genuinely believe cynicsm also functions as a defense mechanism to shield our heart of hearts, or more sensitive human emotions. It is damn bold IMO to admit to what you really want and desire, or what hurts you.
I would also probably separate individuals and systems/hierarchies.
Being a cynical individual in context of human affection is in my view exceedingly counter productive, and whom suffers such fools gladly I wonder!
But can you really say that in context of power in politics or corporate world cynicsim would not often be a winning tactic? In my view, it comes from limited definition of "success" and our inherent mental biases.
A "scheme along and tell" sort of author in France claimed that ex-president Sarkozy allowed riots to happen so he could put them down and come across as a "strong" leader. The horror of the notion that someone might actually die was mentioned - but it was deemed "worth it."
This seems plausible enough, and exceedingly cynical - but the man will not be punished, even if literally true. Smart or low cunning...? Who cares, because it works.
Edit: my browser sort of crashed and now the bottom part of my comment is red. Like the colour, and what it espouses - not a prob - just hope everything shows. Seven paragraphs post Merriam-Webster rip, this edit excluded... :-D