Optimism When Things are Easy is a Sham
"For mine I am an optimist by nature. My reading of history is that the world has always stepped back from the edge of disaster. Against all odds, here we are, alive and kicking."
— Rabbi Laibl Wolf
Optimism isn’t merely hope. It isn’t happiness or a cheery disposition.
Optimism is an act of resilience against the brutal harshness of living the existential crisis.
It’s darkest just before the dawn implies that there will be a dawn. What if there won’t be? What if it’s just more darkness? If the implacable timpani of human greed, a self correcting planetary environment, and the algorithm that defines our modern interaction has no end, should that result in giving in to the despair?
As optimism is a breeze when things are going your way, despair is the path of least resistance when things turn to dire. Seeing through the mist at a better future takes effort and commitment like a solid marriage or a massive novel you’ve committed to writing. It’s a project to be managed not a feeling to languish within.
One cannot truly call himself an optimist who refuses to see the horror. Pretending that people are essentially kind and generous is stuffing the ostrich head in the sand. People are apes with higher brain functions and follow the rules of the jungle. Tribalism, essentialism, war for resources, the history of brutality of all humanity goes far beyond Hannah Jones’ 1619 Project. Taken in whole, we aren’t a very enlightened and forgiving species.
Further, optimism is an individual choice. It’s not something that can be enforced but it is something that can be inspired. The American Experiment, despite its many missteps and flaws, is grounded in a belief that humans can govern themselves justly and effectively. Given the larger picture, belief in democracy is only slightly more delusional than the guy playing slots so he can pay his rent. The odds are astronomically against success and yet the choice to persevere is made.
“We have to reject the notion that we’re suddenly gripped by forces that we cannot control. We’ve got to embrace the longer and more optimistic view of history and the part that we play in it. If you are skeptical of such optimism, I will say something that may sound controversial. I used to say this to my staff in the White House, young interns who would come in, any group of young people that I met with, and that is that by just about every measure, America is better, and the world is better, than it was 50 years ago, 30 years ago, or even 10 years ago.”
— President Barack Obama
This isn’t just hopeful bullshit. This is completely pragmatic, data-driven reality.
Despite the horrors of police killing unarmed black men in viral videos that seem to crop up every other day, the number of unarmed black men killed or injured by police in America has decreased dramatically in the past five years.
Despite the heartbreaking realities of homelessness in America, more people have more access to food and healthcare than ever in the history of the country.
Despite the histrionics of the trans-activists burning Harry Potter books as an expression of (quasi-authoritarian) outrage, the LGTBQ + community is at a unique and unprecedented place of societal acceptance in America.
That’s not hopeful thinking. Those are cold, hard facts. Optimism is not rooted in fantasy but grounded in seeing a fuller picture and recognizing progress when it smacks you in the face. Ignoring the macrocosm and expanding the microcosm’s importance is the choice of children. A child only sees how things affect himself; an adult comprehends that there is more to see and a larger consequence to that ego-driven hyperbole than self-interest.
It’s darkest just before the dawn. There’s the rub. What if there is no light at the end of the tunnel? What if Trump manages to maintain his seat in the Oval Office? What if he packs the SCOTUS with a six-three conservative majority? What if we go to war with China? What if the planet continues the onslaught of climate disaster? If history tells any story at all, it is this:
There is always a dawn.
In the closing moments of the horror film The Mist, after enduring a terrifying night of uncertainty and surviving monsters (both genuine monsters and the monsters humans reveal themselves to be under extreme fear and rage), Thomas Janes is finally escaping. With him is a woman and a child. Once the vehicle runs out of gas and they are still enveloped by the impenetrable mist, they hear what they believe are more monsters. In that moment of despair Janes decides that dying by his hand is better than facing the monsters so he shoots both the child and the woman. As he prepares to kill himself, the monsters he fears turn out to be soldiers and the true horror was his giving into the fear.
If, after the pandemic is under some semblance of decline, the economy starts to find its footing, and Trump is in prison (either in 2022 or 2026), you gave in the despair you’re gonna feel pretty fucking stupid and then spend the rest of your days justifying your shortsighted pessimism.
If you mourn Justice Ginsburg and laud her achievements in changing America for the better yet respond to injustice by throwing cans at cops and justifying looting and destruction, you will have missed the lesson of her life. She never screamed in the streets or stomped her existential adolescent feet to express her desire for a better future. Ginsburg focused her rage and slowly, deliberately, and effectively worked through the democratic system she believed in and fomented lasting change.
Recently, a poll indicated that roughly two-thirds of Zoomers did not know that six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. The tragedy is not their myopic narcissism and pathological disregard for history. It is their dismissal of those who survived the Holocaust because they refused to give in to despair.
When you see someone who has one of those death camp tattoos on their arm you are witnessing a genuine, tried and true, bona fide optimist.
Optimism is hardest when things turn to shit but it is then when it is most necessary.
