Zachary Karabell at The Edgy Optimist:
A bit more than a decade ago, I launched a column for The Atlantic and Reuters and then Slate. It was called “The Edgy Optimist.” The goal was to take a weekly look at what might go right, rather than focus relentlessly on all that is going wrong. Now, in a time of deep pessimism bordering on despair, I’m re-launching “The Edgy Optimist,” and I hope you will join me.
When I started the column, the prevailing mood was dark in the United States, but today, arguably, the mood is far darker, with few corners of the world immune from the belief that tomorrow will inevitably and inexorably be worse than the present. Polls of public opinion in country after county confirm that publics everywhere feel a deep sense of unease about politics, the economy, the climate and above all, the future.
In this maelstrom of negativity, optimism can feel almost offensive. It seems to fly in the face of the intense struggles so many confront. My optimism says not that we are overstating our problems but that we are underestimating our capacity to solve them, and my edginess is that there are dangers in not looking at the upsides.
This is not about firemen saving cats in trees; this is about how we shape our future. Pessimism can create its own dystopian doom loop: the despairing conviction that we lack the ability to create a better world can itself be toxic.
More here.
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