mitchell_porter2 comments on Cynical About Cynicism - Less Wrong

22 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 17 February 2009 12:49AM

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Comment author: mitchell_porter2 17 February 2009 05:10:43AM 4 points [-]

Cynicism is fundamentally about self-defense from future pain. What is the basic message of a cynic? "You'll be disappointed." The cynic, having themselves been painfully disappointed by life, preempts a repeat of the experience by anticipating it everywhere they can, steering clear of hope in general, and advising others to do the same. Some cynics may seek the weakly compensating satisfaction of vanity by trying to perform their cynicism so as to impress, but that is not the essence of the attitude.