When Rob invited me join this panel, I'll admit my first thought was that since Professional Concerns proceedings regularly turn up as readers' forums in ESC, accepting his invitation could mean a potential publication. How's that for cynical? In William Chaloupka's book Everybody Knows: Cynicism in America, author succinctly defines cynicism as the of lost belief (xiv). Synonyms for cynicism clarify this condition: disillusionment, jadedness; canniness, as opposed credulity; realism, as opposed romanticism. This equation of cynicism and realism--often rhetorical self-defence of accused cynic--relates another set of synonyms: cunning, disingenuousness, manipulation, motive, where ulterior means material or selfish. Deprived of or indifferent meaning, cynic finds motive in market. Cynics understand that everything has its price, Chaloupka says (23). The first thing everybody who actually studies cynicism learns is that this contemporary, commonsense meaning of cynicism differs greatly from that of its classical origins. But, here, I am interested in term's contemporary meaning, condition of lost faith: Chaloupka's definition may be concise, but it is also capacious, accommodating different kinds of cynicism. Cynicism means different things depending on whether it is coming from a dominant, negotiated, or oppositional position. The cynicism of rulers is different from that of ruled, and among rulers and ruled are different kinds of cynicism. Peter Sloterdijk's Critique of Cynical Reason distinguishes between cynicism and kynicism: cynicism is of enlightened false consciousness for profiteering policy-making of rulers; kynicism is its complement among ruled, a carnivalesque mode of criticism and ridicule that Slavoj Zizek describes as more pragmatic than argumentative: it subverts official proposition by confronting it with situation of its enunciation; it proceeds ad hominem (29), that is, attacking speaker expose his or her personal stake in said proposition. So cynicism can productively guide critical thinking about social relations under late neoliberal capital, in terms of power and ethics, in terms of knowledge and interpretation. A cynical perspective makes for a safe bet in speculating on or interpreting actions and statements of neo-liberal rulers--meaning transnational corporations and state governments that serve them--since they are so exclusively governed by profit motive. Since hard right turn of late twentieth century, cynicism of corporate capital rule has become increasingly bold, even shocking, in its nakedness and hence increasingly open kynical critique. After taking office in 1995, Ontario's education minister became notorious for describing fellow officials a decidedly cynical plan create a useful crisis in education, expressly bankrupt actions and activities that aren't consistent with future we're committed to (Snobelin quoted in Keefer 36-37). This was disillusioning stuff hear at a time when I was an undergraduate English major. What's at stake? (1) Where's money going? Who stands gain here? These cynical questions are useful for cultivating critical thinking in context of late capital. But cynical thinking entails risks, too. In addition its personal, psychological risks (like depression), cynicism risks reproducing structures of power that precipitate it. To equate cynical thinking with critical thinking is credit profit motive as only motive, reify capital as only game in town. If neo-liberal hegemony has perfected modus operandi of wielding a hammer make everything look like a nail, cynical critique of capital must take a hand in flattening that ensues. Cynicism is late capital's heuristic pharmakon: both poison and antidote. (2) Take, for example, a recent Esc Readers' Forum article about accute dance party. …