A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who don’t have it.”
~ George Bernard Shaw

Contemporary cynicism has acquired a bad reputation in our modern times. Reason simply being that most people are inclined towards a brighter and optimistic disposition. Meanwhile, cynicism doesn’t fit that narrative because it is perceived as negativity.

That in itself is not a bad thing innately. Its when people eschew that which does not side with their bias that they do not see its practical uses. It also makes them fallible towards blind optimism and mindless faith.

According to a general search on the web, a cynic is:

“a person who believes that people are motivated purely by self-interest rather than acting for honorable or unselfish reasons.”

It is ironic that contemporary cynicism had its origins in cynicism as a philosophy under the ancient Greeks called the Cynics. Quoting Wikipedia, they believed that..

“..the purpose of life is to live in virtue, in agreement with nature. As reasoning creatures, people can gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which is natural for themselves, rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, sex, and fame. Instead, they were to lead a simple life free from all possessions.”

(You can read more about contemporary cynicism from Wikipedia’s article..)

Though both contemporary cynicism and Greek cynicism have their extremes, they nevertheless have virtues that we should learn to emulate.

From contemporary cynicism, we must understand that most people are motivated by their self-interests rather than the concept of honour and altruism. That is okay because we would mostly be motivated by self-interest too.

Similarly to cynicism, being motivated by self-interest is neither positive or negative. It only becomes negative when a person’s self-interest thus becomes selfish, in which his self-interest harms and exploits another person or living being to their detriment.

From Greek cynicism, we must learn to understand that when death arrives whether or not we have attained wealth, power, sex and fame, they disappear altogether. Yet, that does not mean we should completely eschew or forgo wealth, power, sex and fame. Far from it.

To briefly conclude, having cynicism is an astute ability to understand the world and people in all measures without the rose tinted glasses.