Nor does reciprocal altruism — the evolutionary rationale behind fairness — imply that people do good deeds in the cynical expectation of repayment down the line.
It has, I found, its own distinctive tenor – a kind of cautious optimism for the future, leavened with the cynical expectation that avaricious, unaccountable chancers will bring about disaster nonetheless.
Heck, even my own pet proposal for Social Security reform funds its flat first-tier benefit from general revenues, and, to be perfectly honest, my cynical expectation is that the most likely resolution of the future Social Security funding gap will simply be for the federal government to pick up the difference with general tax revenues.
I've been covering politics for so long that I sometimes wonder if I'm too cynical and if my expectations for politicians are too low.
To put things in more cynical terms: lower your expectations.
We live in a time when people are less optimistic, more cynical and have lower expectations, in part because they see government and other institutions as ineffective and unresponsive.
Fulfilling the expectations of the cynical, both sets marched straight to the white-elephant graveyard.
Moreover, before long, the majority of devoted democrats grew disappointed and cynical, ashamed of their naïve expectations.
Ben was burnt out with his job, frustrated and cynical from years of unfulfilled expectations and disillusionment.
But it was mostly dismal, most of the way through, and that takes it well past the critical psychological threshold where optimistic expectation turns to cynical resentment....What we got was an all-purpose Mick Jagger impersonation supplemented by spasms of hysterical gurning from the Enfield Institute of Clowning".
