A lot of people fall into a materialist worldview rather early on in their lives and become rather competitive when it comes to being part of society. I think the cynicism in part is neccesary in order to make it through without ending up questioning things and being segregated because of it.

People have a rather confident opinion on certain things, even calling them "scientific facts" but they would be surprised to find out that a lot of the things they take for granted are actually theories, even admitted by the stablisment that they claim to defend or they may even be illusions completely.

Despite this, people are so cynical that they will rarely admit their wrongs and would rather continue holding on to their ideals even if they know they are fake. It's the natural result of the nihilism present everywhere in society.

This corrupted "materialism" has done a huge amount of damage to whole generations and will be hard to fix. People should not only be judged according to their level of skills, but also by their ethics and loyalty to their own, as well as be rewarded by it. I think societies are overall falling into self-destruction due to the ethical crisis we are facing right now.