Dick Keyes, director of L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts, unmasked the dark side of cynicism in his book, “Seeing Through Cynicism: A Reconsideration of the Power of Suspicion.” I highly recommend it.
“Cynicism,” Keyes wrote, “does not get the scrutiny it deserves…it has some privileged position that makes it immune to serious challenge.”
“In some groups, particularly those associated with media and higher education, cynicism seems to have the status of common sense or self-evident truth. It becomes the default setting of many conversations. We don’t think to question it when it is all around us.”
“Some embrace cynicism with pride and defiance. Others suffer from a cynicism that they do not want but feel forced to adopt by honesty. Still others fight against it with whatever they find handy, and far more drift into it by accident with little awareness of what has happened.”
"Yes, we must be honesty and discerning. We must strive to see through triviality, hypocrisy, flattery, evil agendas and false motives. We must not be gullible and susceptible to con-artistry and sentimental optimism. Yet, we dare not allow ourselves to become ridden with suspicions and hardened by cynicism.”
