The Problem with Optimism

"Whatever the advantages of a particular landscape, people seem always to reshape it according to their vision of what it should be."-(Nature's Metropolis, William Cronon, 55)

This passage from the very first page of todays reading struck me not only for its literal implications as the rest of the chapter discussed, but interpreted abstractly I think this concept applies to every problem people face. I believe people are generally optimistic beings. We are trained by experiences to be pessimistic at times. We have no reason to pessimistic until we have had experiences which train us to expect negative outcomes. We hope for a greater future. We invest so much faith in making that possibility a reality and once we arrive at that reality there is a greater future then to reach for. I think this idea is amplified in America, perhaps because of our system of government. Whitman's Democratic Vistas emphasized, "America, filling the present with greatest deeds and problems, cheerfully accepting the past..., counts, as I reckon, for her justification and success, (for who, as yet, dare claim success?) almost entirely on the future." Later in the paper he uses an image of America's potential being asleep to illustrate this concept. I feel in a way that is the beauty of democracy. Because democracy allows for change, the potential of the country is always asleep in comparison to the future democracy can bring.


The hope is always there that we can reshape our world or our problems according to our optimism. I think the problem with this comes when we deceive ourselves into believing an impossibility  or a nonreality. I think people mentally or physically reshape situations based on what they wish they were or hope they could be, however, ultimately, if we allow that to obscure our sense of reality, we will one day have to face to truth. For example a lot of the 'progress' we have made since railroads and factories and cars is hurting what Cronon refers to as the 'first nature' of our environment. Although we have reshaped the world in our image, nature, which we also need to survive, is suffering. Thus I believe that it is good to remain optimistic, but important to allow that optimism to be rationally guided by reality.