The Cynical Americans

The Cynical Americans PDF

Author: Donald L. Kanter

Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Published: 1989-04-14

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13:

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The authors draw on their comprehensive national survey of American employees to reveal why cynicism has become so rampant in our workplace--and shows how to understand, diagnose, and successfully combat it in organizations. Includes sections on the signs of cynicism, the roots of cynicism, the consequences of cynicism, and remedies for cynicism.

Everybody Knows

Everybody Knows PDF

Author: William Chaloupka

Publisher: U of Minnesota Press

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9781452903811

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In Everybody Knows, William Chaloupka scrutinizes the cynicism that is in our common condition, examining both its uses in the politics of backlash and resentment and its surprisingly positive aspects.'

The Cynical Society

The Cynical Society PDF

Author: Jeffrey C. Goldfarb

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780226301075

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The Cynical Society is a study of the political despair and abdication of (individual) responsibility Goldfarb calls cynicism—a central but unexamined aspect of contemporary American political and social life. Goldfarb reveals with vivid strokes how cynicism undermines our capacity to think about society's strengths and weaknesses. Drawing on thinkers from Alexis de Tocqueville to Allan Bloom and on such recent works as Beloved, Bonfire of the Vanities, and Mississippi Burning, The Cynical Society celebrates cultural pluralism's role in democracy.

Soul of a Citizen

Soul of a Citizen PDF

Author: Paul Rogat Loeb

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Published: 2010-03-30

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1429934077

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Soul of a Citizen awakens within us the desire and the ability to make our voices heard and our actions count. We can lead lives worthy of our convictions. A book of inspiration and integrity, Soul of a Citizen is an antidote to the twin scourges of modern life--powerlessness and cynicism. In his evocative style, Paul Loeb tells moving stories of ordinary Americans who have found unexpected fulfillment in social involvement. Through their example and Loeb's own wise and powerful lessons, we are compelled to move from passivity to participation. The reward of our action, we learn, is nothing less than a sense of connection and purpose not found in a purely personal life. Soul of a Citizen has become the handbook for budding social activists, veteran organizers, and anybody who wants to make a change—big or small—in the world around them. At this critical historical time , Paul Loeb's completely revised edition—and inspiring message—is more urgently important than ever.

The Forgotten Americans

The Forgotten Americans PDF

Author: Isabel Sawhill

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 0300230362

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A sobering account of a disenfranchised American working class and important policy solutions to the nation's economic inequalities One of the country's leading scholars on economics and social policy, Isabel Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society--economic, cultural, and political--and what might be done to bridge them. Widening inequality and the loss of jobs to trade and technology has left a significant portion of the American workforce disenfranchised and skeptical of governments and corporations alike. And yet both have a role to play in improving the country for all. Sawhill argues for a policy agenda based on mainstream values, such as family, education, and work. Although many have lost faith in government programs designed to help them, there are still trusted institutions on both the local and the federal level that can deliver better job opportunities and higher wages to those who have been left behind. At the same time, the private sector needs to reexamine how it trains and rewards employees. This book provides a clear-headed and middle-way path to a better-functioning society in which personal responsibility is honored and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are once more the norm.

The Cynic

The Cynic PDF

Author: Alec MacGillis

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-12-23

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1501112031

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From a dogged political reporter, an investigation into the political education of Mitch McConnell and an argument that this powerful Senator embodies much of this country’s political dysfunction. Based on interviews with more than seventy-five people who have worked alongside Mitch McConnell or otherwise interacted with him over the course of his career, The Cynic is both a comprehensive biography of one of this country’s most powerful politicians and a damning diagnosis of this country's eroding political will. Tracing his rise from a pragmatic local official in Kentucky to the leader of the Republican opposition in Washington, the book tracks McConnell’s transformation from a moderate Republican who supported abortion rights and public employee unions to the embodiment of partisan obstructionism and conservative orthodoxy on Capitol Hill. Driven less by a shift in ideological conviction than by a desire to win elections and stay in power at all costs, McConnell’s transformation exemplifies the “permanent campaign” mindset that has come to dominate American government. From his first race for local office in 1977—when the ad crew working on it nicknamed McConnell “love-me-love-me” for his insecurity and desire to please—to his fraught accommodation of the Tea Party, McConnell’s political career is a story of ideological calcification and a vital mirror for understanding this country’s own political development and what is wrought when politicians serve not at the behest of country, but at the behest of party and personal aggrandizement.

The Function of Cynicism at the Present Time

The Function of Cynicism at the Present Time PDF

Author: Helen Small

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2020-06-29

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0198861931

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Cynicism is usually seen as a provocative mode of dissent from conventional moral thought, casting doubt on the motives that guide right conduct. When critics today complain that it is ubiquitous but lacks the serious bite of classical Cynicism, they express concern that it can now only be corrosively negative. The Function of Cynicism at the Present Time takes a more balanced view. Re-evaluating the role of cynicism in literature, cultural criticism, and philosophy from 1840 to the present, it treats cynic confrontationalism as a widely-employed credibility-check on the promotion of moral ideals--with roots in human psychology. Helen Small investigates how writers have engaged with Cynic traditions of thought, and later more gestural styles of cynicism, to re-calibrate dominant moral values, judgements of taste, and political agreements. The argument develops through a series of cynic challenges to accepted moral thinking: Friedrich Nietzsche on morality; Thomas Carlyle v. J. S. Mill on the permissible limits of moral provocation; Arnold on the freedom of criticism; George Eliot and Ford Madox Ford on cosmopolitanism; Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, and Laura Kipnis on the conditions of work in the university. The Function of Cynicism treats topics of present-day public concern: abrasive styles of public argument; debasing challenges to conventional morality; free speech, moral controversialism; the authority of reason and the limits of that authority; nationalism and resistance to nationalism; and liberty of expression as a core principle of the university.

The Fieldston Guide to American History for Cynical Beginners

The Fieldston Guide to American History for Cynical Beginners PDF

Author: Jim Cullen

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2005-03

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 0595343422

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Are You a Cynical Beginner? You may not have a Ph.D. in history, but you already know -- or can readily believe -- that Columbus didn't exactly "discover" America. Or that the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence was a slaveholder. Or that our leaders may not be entirely committed to the effort to make sure that in fact no child is left behind. But the truth of individual lives can be more compelling than they initially appear: surprising, informative, and maybe even inspiring. This book explores a few such lives, and the lessons they offer in ways that might actually mean something outside a classroom. These biographical case studies -- which include General George Washington, who was once invited to lead a military coup against the new American government; Ida Wells, who responded to lynchings by publicly mocking the manhood of those who murdered African Americans; and Eugene Debs, who chose to go to jail to protect free speech -- explore a series of questions. How does one keep true to one's principles in the face of social pressure? What strategies work best in addressing your opponents? Can public acts atone for private flaws? In different ways, the profiles in courage here provide answers to these questions -- not definitive answers, but real ones. You can weigh them, accept them, reject them, or -- who knows? -- maybe even apply them. You may not end up any less cynical after leafing through this book. But you will be less of a beginner.