Optimism is something that is constantly referenced in job interviews, personality descriptions, and literature. The other day I came across a passage by Howard Zinn in a piece of literature I was reading for one of my classes; it describes what an optimist really is and provides an interesting take on hope and action in our day-to-day lives.
This passage really moved me. In this day and age, most rational thinkers judge optimists as crazy people who are looking through rose-colored glasses, unable to see what the world truly is: unfixable.
When did it become this way?
In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with being optimistic and hopeful about the future. In fact, this type of behavior should be encouraged. Actions like actually getting one's feet on the ground or pen to paper is fueled by hope and optimism. Why do we as a society look down on people who realistically are shaping themselves to be go-getters of social change?
As the passage says, “if we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.” We have to imagine our world or our society or whatever needs fixing as the place it can be before we ever act to make it that way. You cannot have radical change or improve a thing if you cannot see what it can be and are not optimistic about it. Maybe this all seems obvious, but there is so much negativity going around the world these days. It’s not just the negativity that hurts us, either — it’s the passive nature of most of the people. The average human being might (for example) see refugees on TV and think, “How sad. If only I could do something to help.” This kind of negative, “there is no hope for anything” attitude is the reason why things don’t get done. If we want to do something, we have to admit to ourselves that it won’t get done unless we do it ourselves. Although this may not be 100 percent true, this is the mentality that we as social activists, or even just optimistic people, should take.
Even if whatever action you take to fix something, whether it be small or large, isn’t as impactful as you’d like it to be, you still acted. As the passage says, “If we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future,” meaning that whatever action you might take still counts, no matter its impact. As long as you act, you can never feel guilty about not participating in the cause in some way, because you did, albeit in a (possibly) small way. There is no downside to acting.
Optimism can lead to so many great and powerful things. It doesn’t have to mean social change. But it can, which is a hugely positive thing for society. Need a classic example of an optimist? How about Thomas Edison and the lightbulb? He had to have been pretty optimistic and believe in himself enough to continue to try over 1,000 ways to get the lightbulb to work.
In general, social change is not a given. It is not something that is required of everyone, and you don’t have to be a radical thinker with tons of money or tons of friends to help you. You don’t even have to come up with the best and brightest ideas to be involved in change or activism or to just be an optimist. All you have to do is have hope in yourself, the world, or whatever cause you believe in. Out of hope rises — as the passage says — “a marvelous victory” where we as optimists allow ourselves to believe in what the world can be if only we have hope and act on our optimism.
