Is Optimism a Feeling, or an Action?
Today is Day 1 of a new political era for the UK, following a landslide victory by the Labour party last night, ending 14 years of Conservative party rule.
This week, in the final days before this election, I joined some of my favourite people in the world at a conference hosted by Public Law Project in Birmingham (a city that has just declared bankruptcy) for UK activists and lawyers looking to make the world a better place.
The outlook was uncertain and varied. Some people opted for lashings of hope, laced with fear. For others, a scoop of pessimism, with sprinkles of optimism.
These people are lifelong changemakers, people who engage every day in the act of challenging injustice and structural inequality. They should be experts on the question of what needs to change, and how to make that happen.
I found it interesting that we (collectively) knew so little about the Labour’s values, character and intentions for government – even on the literal eve of the election – that we did not have a gut instinct or a consensus view on what the role and strategy for progressive civil society could look like in Days 1 through 100.
Are you an optimist, or a pessimist?
No easy answers.
I’m pessimistic about what people who have power will do to retain power – particularly if they feel threatened – but I’m optimistic that people will also tend towards generosity of spirit and things, if they feel secure and safe.
The one thing I have never been able to figure out is how to make everyone feel secure and safe when our natural state is one of scarcity and unequal distribution of resources.
“I am a pessimist of the intellect, and an optimist of the will” Antonio Gramsci
I loved this quote the first time I heard it. It was written by Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist intellectual who lived from 1891-1937. I felt like it embraced the idea that we can be realistic about how things are today, but still hold optimism about the future.
Then I did a bit more reading, including this long but thought provoking article by Asad Haider, “Pessimism of the Will” – in it, he referred to my interpretation as watering down a serious work so as to render it “…nothing more than a poster on the wall of a middle-school classroom.” 😬
Haider points out that Gramsci’s famous quote has to be read in the context of his major works, the Prison Notebooks – 30 books and 3000+ pages of history, philosophy and political theory written during his painful and ultimately, fatal imprisonment by the fascist dictator Mussolini, between 1929 and 1935.
Gramsci was specifically focusing on praxis (action) that must be taken to overturn or overthrow oppression. He may also have meant collective action, and not individual action, in the use of the word will.
Finally, Haidar cautions that Gramsci might be abstruse, or complex to interpret on these points because his correspondence was read at all times by his prison guards, and subject to censorship.
Ironically, it might be this very challenge – Gramsci’s efforts to write in a way that would defy censorship – that has also left a literature that feels so universally true, rich and timeless.
His analysis of power and ideology still feels fresh and modern, still so relevant in thinking about UK and US politics today.
Curious? Here’s six-minute video by Tom Nicholas on Gramsci and Cultural Hegemony.
So, is optimism a feeling, or an action?
Probably, both.
And that is the wonderful thing about feeling, thinking, us. 🍦
“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.” Noam Chomsky
First published on LinkedIn on 5 July 2024:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/optimism-feeling-action-jen-ang-nfkfe/
