Is it reasonable or irresponsible to be cynical?

It's just the way that I and a billion or so choose to be.

I think the only way to be responsible is to be cynical. How can you prepare yourself and your loved ones for what could go wrong, if you were completely optimistic about the world? Bad things happen so frequently in the world that it's reasonable to expect that it can happen in your own life.

I think that it can be carried too far, though. If you were cynical all of the time, life would feel very depressing, and you would be a very depressing person to be around. Plus, occasionally good things happen, and you wouldn't want to risk closing yourself off to good experiences by being excessively cynical.

That's why I'm a fan of the saying, "Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst."

Irresponsible and a sign of a lack of will. I like to question things or at least see the other point of view. I am not, however, immune to being cynical at times. It is hard to be human.

We have to define cynical to be exactly on target. Cynical in my point of view means to laugh at everything with despise. At least this is the basic meaning of the word from Greek: to open your mouth and show your teeth like a dog. Cynicists in Greece were considered being like dogs. Yet they were not irresponsible. They just showed their teeth at what displeased them, mostly everything. So, this was not reasonable.

So, all in all, it is difficult to pinpoint where the reasoning is and where the irresponsibility is. I think it is beyond reasonable and irresponsible. I think it is something else altogether. I think it shows that one is wounded like a beaten dog, an abused dog.

Absolutely reasonable. I'm fairly cynical myself, but in more of a "wow I can't believe this" sort of way. Kind of hard to explain.

Both. That's why I do it.

The gentleman below is describing that kind of cynicism that is known in cynical circles as "Naivete"

Man I am so dizzy from spinning in cynical circles.

It is a reasonable response to an unknown and untrusty world.

How cna it possibly be irresponsible? Responsible to whom?

No