The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
And, really, that should make us happier:
“Just a little bigger brains and bigger hearts at the top,” the left insists with a smile. “And just a little more taxes. Then our leaders can invent the partnership between big business and big government that’s sure to make our system work.”
“No,” says the right, “just a little more growth and productivity — and a can-do spirit. That’ll guarantee the output we need to successfully drag along this parasitic welfare state we’ll never get rid of.”
Despair lurks behind both these moral and political sales pitches — in the sinking realization that the only thing holding them together is moxie. In a cruel twist, the feverish torpor Tocqueville warned us about over 150 years ago has arisen from our bipartisan unwillingness even to countenance the possibility that the age of optimism is necessarily over.
Accepting the end of optimism might just save America. Loosed from the spell of optimism, the myth of liberalism becomes a warning that our current path has doomed us to a period of agitated paralysis — as the conservative myth affirms that we are unable either to repose in the past or to escape it.
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Jul '10
Re: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
James, the era of Big Optimism is just starting. America has always had more "greatness" to draw on when it wasn't dragging a mordantly obese but senile government along with. The last round was "Morning in America," to coin a catchphrase. There is a great deal of pessimism today because Obama has overreached and made zero corrections to respond to reality. He is a dogma drone, the sooner he is haunting taxicabs and barber shops, the better.
This is dangerous.
And then there is Obamascare, half the care at twice the price. And the GOP fighting to make Obamascare immortal through Romney after campaigning on repeal in 2010. Disingenuous, to say the least. The people lose, Washington wins.
Enough with the parties of Washington. They have played their hands and shown their worth. Boehner holds the last opportunity for a principled response to the 2010 election.
The era of Big Pessimism has been marked by crony capitalism and creeping Marxism. By the notion that America can be run even more productively on the "German" model, different only by degrees from the very failed NAZI model. W and Obama have killed that model for the people, if not the parties of Washington.
Edited on Jul 23, 2011 at 9:45pmDec '10
Re: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
So what would you propose we do instead of looking back to what has worked before?
Coercive government doesn't work. It hasn't worked in the past, and it won't work in the future. That should be plain by now, to even the most dunderheaded of people (I'm looking at you here, Barry).
Capitalism has worked in the past, quite well in fact.
What has been called "capitalism" in the last 30-50 yrs is not in actual fact Capitalism at all, but a kind of weird Corporatism crossed with Socialism, and it has shown that it doesn't really work all that well either. Better maybe than totalitarian central planning (a la Communism or Fascism), but certainly not viable in the longer term.
So, what are we left with to try besides those three options?
Barter? Well, it's hard to make change for a cow, and you can't really carry one in your pocket either.
Feudalism? I'm sure the few lords and knights would not find this to be a bad choice, but the serfs might disagree.
Monarchy? It's good to be king, right up until it isn't (ask Louie), and again, the peasants probably don't think it's all that great.
Anarchy? I can defend myself and my stuff, or I can be productive, but I can't do both at once.
Pure Democracy? Great when you're in the mob, somewhat less so when you're the subject of the mob.
I'm not seeing a lot of good options here.
Maybe we ought to go back to what we know works.
Optimism would then be a natural byproduct of things starting to work properly again.
Put another way, Optimism is a symptom, not a cause.
America was full of optimists, because the climate here was conducive to the formation of such an outlook.
Now that things look grim due to epic stupidity and governmental overreach, the level of optimism is going way down. The climate has changed (ZOMG!!!!!1!!!! CLIMATE CHANGE!!!!!!!).
If the policies that caused this change can be rolled back, I see no reason why optimism would not return, along with prosperity.
Edited on Jul 23, 2011 at 5:01pmDec '10
Re: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
My fear, CoolHand, is that we have to pass through either tyranny or anarchy to get to the doorstep of capitalism again.
Aug '10
Re: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
Excellent post and superb comments. We're in uncharted territory now, and haven't really faced up to the consequences of idiotic and malicious policies and programs. You're right, it's over and the hard part is beginning.
There is a wild card that is beginning to change the game and will alter everything - for good or ill: the machines (who will probably want to choose another name). We will merge with them bit by bit, and they will very likely eliminate mental illness from the once-human race. That will cause dramatic change; possibly a Renaissance. Of course, there will be strife and shock.
Mar '11
Re: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
I think John Derbyshire may be right and that it may be too late. Read Steyn too. Sometimes I feel like we're in the American version of the last days of Rome, and that Reagan was our Diocletian: a man that tried valiantly to stem the changes to Rome... and appeared to succeed during his lifetime... but that ultimately, failed to stop the tide of change and decay.
My sense of Reaganesque optimism is quickly dying out. Increasingly, when I look at the Tea Party, I don't think "Thank God people are waking up!", but "too little, too late".
Dec '10
Re: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
Douglas
My sense of Reaganesque optimism is quickly dying out. Increasingly, when I look at the Tea Party, I don't think "Thank God people are waking up!", but "too little, too late". · Jul 23 at 9:20pm
Damn.
Guess I'd better go hang myself then . . .
Jul '10
Re: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
Despair lurks behind both these moral and political sales pitches — in the sinking realization that the only thing holding them together is moxie...
The hard lesson all optimisms deny is that freedom hurts, yesterday, today and forever. In realizing that optimism is not another word for happiness, we edge closer to the recognition that pain is not the opposite of happiness. On the precipice of our unsurpassed debt crisis, Americans must decide not whether to suffer, but how.
Sure, but what's the upside, James?
Seriously, the presumption of inevitable improvement is a silly trope. Pain is a consequence of a meaningful, free, existence. Only overprotective mothers and dems dispute this. But the presumption of inevitable cultural decline is more useful for jackals than people.
Under that delusion:
1. Why raise a family?
2. Why start a business?
3. Why make an effort to develop, improve, create, or build anything?
I'm a pessimist. We're probably doomed. Nevertheless, like you, I reject the consequences of that pessimism each and every day. We don't need another era of "big optimism."
We'd be fools though, to accept that striving is necessarily counterproductive.
In other words: buck up.
Edited on Jul 23, 2011 at 10:22pmRe: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
Douglas
I think John Derbyshire may be right and that it may be too late. Read Steyn too. Sometimes I feel like we're in the American version of the last days of Rome, and that Reagan was our Diocletian: a man that tried valiantly to stem the changes to Rome... and appeared to succeed during his lifetime... but that ultimately, failed to stop the tide of change and decay.
My sense of Reaganesque optimism is quickly dying out. Increasingly, when I look at the Tea Party, I don't think "Thank God people are waking up!", but "too little, too late". · Jul 23 at 9:20pm
As tough as I am on optimism, I'm not quite ready to throw in with the pessimists yet. Then again, not even Steyn thinks we're really headed for life "After America." ...Right?
Mar '11
Re: The Era of Big Optimism Is Over
James Poulos
As tough as I am on optimism, I'm not quite ready to throw in with the pessimists yet. Then again, not even Steyn thinks we're really headed for life "After America." ...Right? · Jul 24 at 3:15pm
James, I'm still convincible. I want to believe that we can win and repair the damage. It's just getting harder to do so.