cynic, argues Tardieu, promotes contempt for human nature and supports every
imaginable kind of immoral instinct. The roots of Cynicism, he maintains, are
traceable to Max Stirner's absolute egoism, Arthur Schopenhauer's pessimism,
and what he takes to be Nietzsche's nihilism. ² Cynicism, in Tardieu's view,
constitutes the bankruptcy of ethical and social values, as it removes the
individual from his social context, forcing him to break away from all traditional
frames of reference, while providing for him no meaningful alternatives. It
manifests itself in the cynic's private life, in his marital relations, in his behavior
towards his children, in his professional activities, in his contemptuous regard for
neighbors, and in his unbounded hedonism and lack of morals. Naturally, it
appears with great intensity in the political world, in which nations are led
aimlessly by cynical politicians--the sort of people who believe in nothing,
whose only preoccupation is their own materialistic benefit, and who are
obsessed with the need to control others. Cynicism, according to Tardieu,
represents the final triumph of vulgarity over civilization, the ultimate victory of
the vulgus, and is a clear indication of the collapse of culture and values.

But probably the most extensive and documented analysis of modern
cynicism as an all-engulfing and universal phenomenon is Peter Sloterdijk
Kritik der zynischen Vernunft. ³ In this voluminous book, Sloterdijk undertakes
an examination of cynicism in its diverse manifestations, characterizing it as a
malaise of culture, and defining it as that state of consciousness that follows after
naive ideologies and their enlightenment, and as the twilight of false conscious-
ness. Cynicism, contends Sloterdijk, is philosophy on its deathbed, since it stands
for the absence of ideals, standards, values, aspirations, and reason. It has come
to dominate contemporary art and music, and is found in religion, morality and
ethics, military affairs, politics, and in modern life in general. Cynicism, as
presented to us by Sloterdijk, is, not unlike the cynicism described by Tardieu,
the final conquest of an all-embracing nihilism that announces and welcomes the
bankruptcy of meaningful human existence. For both authors, the modern cynic
recognizes no authority or higher standards than himself, and views his accom-
plishments, most if not all of them provided for him by technology, as the
highest point in human evolution, for which reason he does not even envision the
need or even the possibility of aspiring to a higher level of intellectual or moral
development. He has broken away from all traditional norms and expectations,
and in an attitude of sarcastic disdain, he proclaims himself independent and self-
sufficient. His lack of reason and the weakness of his moral principles, as
Sloterdijk suggests, make him easy prey to devouring political and social
ideologies that he does not understand, but that abundantly fill the vacuum of his
own confused and bewildered consciousness. Such ideologies, as exemplified by
Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, are created and sustained by cynics who,
only one step ahead of the masses, succeed in manipulating them for their own
cynical purposes.

It is difficult not to agree with Sloterdijk's assessment of the human
condition in the twentieth century. Cynicism appears to have permeated every

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