Polls report that 73 percent of Americans believe people are born good. Coupled with the narcissistic mandate to "find oneself," our current American ethos has fostered a society of self-absorbed, uninformed, and overly optimistic individuals. At the same time, however, there is a growing sense of dissatisfaction-faced with the imbalance of wealth and declining education and moral standards, Americans are left with the impression that something is wrong. In Blessed are the Cynical, Mark Ellingsen contends that American problems are in fact primarily a function of our naively optimistic view of human nature.