[quoted at Movable Theoblogical]

...so many today rely on cynicism to sustain the self. When the presuppositions necessary to uphold a society's ethic of honor are no longer tenable, cynicism becomes morally indispensable Through our cynicism --that is, the rigorous and disciplined attempt to investigate the self-interest behind every moral claim we seek to avoid the loss of the self by denying overriding loyalty to any cause or community.
Yet in the process we lose the very soil crucial to the growth of virtue --the self esteem cultivated by the sense of sharing a worthy adventure. For a rigorous cynicism is too powerful. Even as it calls into question the moral commitments of others, we cannot save ourselves from its destructive gaze. Cynicism leaves us only with the consolation that because we recognize our own deception we are not hypocrites or fools. Of course, there is no deeper deceit than the assumption that we are among those free from deception.

Moreover, cynicism cannot sustain itself, as it is too easily captured by powers it does not have the means to name, much less avoid. As historical brings we cannot avoid living someone's history, even if we think our cynicism has freed us from all commitments. We are not free from all narratives, nor can we choose any story. Our only escape from destructive histories consists in having the virtues trained by a truthful story, and that can come solely through participation in a society that claims our lives in a morefundamental fashion than any profession or state has the right to do.

-- from A Community of Character by Stanley Hauerwas