Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive?

More on optimism from Michael Kinsley, in the wake of Reagan’s passing and his being hailed for turning America around with his “optimism.”

Could there be an emptier claim made on behalf of someone hoping to lead the United States of America than to say that he is “optimistic”?

Optimism may well be part of the American character, but it is pretty insufficient as either a campaign promise or a governing principle. If the objective situation calls for optimism, being optimistic isn’t much of a trick or a distinction. If the objective situation calls for something closer to pessimism, the last thing we want is some Micawber whistling past the Treasury Department.

We don’t want a president who sees the silver lining in every cloud. We want a president who sees the cloud and dispels it. We want someone who will make the objective situation justify optimism, not someone who is optimistic in any objective situation. If optimism is hard-wired into the American character, it should be especially important to have someone sober at the wheel of the car. Of course, such clear-headedness is a hopeless ideal. But it is odd that politicians of every stripe now promise that their vision will be clouded.

And if forced to choose between a leader whose vision is clouded by optimism and one whose vision is clouded by pessimism, there is a good case that pessimism is the more prudent choice. Another name for pessimism is a tragic sensibility. It is a vivid awareness that things can go wrong, and often have. An optimist thinks he can pop over to Iraq, knock Saddam Hussein off his perch, establish democracy throughout the Middle East and be home in time for dinner. A pessimist knows better.

With all this talk of optimism during the week of Reagan-worship revision, I haven’t been able to help wondering just why there hasn’t been any mention of possibility to be a blind or cockeyed optimist;”cockeyed” being defined as

1. Foolish; ridiculous; absurd: a cockeyed idea.
2. Askew; crooked.
3. Intoxicated; drunk.

I went in search of the definition because of Kinsley’s statement from above, “If optimism is hard-wired into the American character, it should be especially important to have someone sober at the wheel of the car,” likening optimism—at least an unyeilding optimism in circumstances that don’t come close to justifying it—to a kind of drunkeness. It reminded me of that article on happiness that I blogged about yesterday, in that optimism seems an echo of the mantra “everything is fine.”

Kinsley writes,

An optimist thinks he can pop over to Iraq, knock Saddam Hussein off his perch, establish democracy throughout the Middle East and be home in time for dinner. A pessimist knows better.

In that sense, he definitely has a point. A cockeyed optimist launches an invasion/occupation campaign based on discredited intelligence, with too few soldiers (who have too little training and too few supplies), too little international support, and an insufficient budget, and thinks everything is going to be fine. A pessimist looks a little further down the garden path, sees the dead-end at the garden wall, and considers taking another route.

So, we have a choice now. We can keep blundering towards the brick wall, hoping for the best, or we can stop and consider taking another route.