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You are here: Home / 4 Professional Arts / c Transferrable Skills / Personal Effectiveness / Managing Yourself / Don't Be a Cynic

Don't Be a Cynic

January 6, 2009 by mattperman

A cynic is:

1. a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions and who disbelieves in or minimizes selfless acts or disinterested points of view.

2. a person who shows or expresses a bitterly or sneeringly cynical attitude.

Don’t be one of those people. Don’t be someone who thinks that everyone has ill intentions towards others, or merely narrow intentions regarding themselves. Don’t be someone who thinks nothing ultimately does any good — that is, someone who thinks that nothing matters.

Cynicism means death to meaning and death to significance. It is not a pleasant way to live, and it doesn’t serve people. It doesn’t serve people because it’s not true. There is common grace, and there is saving grace.

There is an earlier definition to “cynic” which is now considered out of date, but which I think remains an apt description of the modern-day cynic:

6. Medicine/Medical Now Rare. resembling the actions of a snarling dog.

As I write this, the song playing in my iTunes is repeating the line “greater things are yet to come; greater things are still to be done.” That’s what I believe.

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About Matt Perman

 

I am the director of career development at The King’s College NYC, co-founder of What’s Best Next, and the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done. This is my personal website where I blog on four of my favorite topics: theology, apologetics, culture, and living in New York City.

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