Pessimism, Again

Prof. Joshua Foa Dienstag, author of a recent book on the subject, offers this LA Times* article: Oh, to Be a Country of Pessimists Again. Here is a taste:

Though the Bush administration may be the latest and most extreme version of the compulsory optimism of American politics, matters will not improve if we simply replace it with an equally optimistic administration from the other party. The problem is that the vocabulary of optimism itself distorts our understanding of the world and leaves us lost in illusions.

The author provides no explanation in his article as to why he included the word "Again" in the title. Perhaps the Old Republic was more pessimistic; I don't know. For the last 150 years or so, it seems that optimism has become so American that pessimism is almost treasonous.

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