There are few who incur as much disdain from the masses as those who lack optimism. Social media, in particular, encourages people to ram platitudes down each others throats in the form of "inspirational quotes", all prattling on about how we just need to have the right attitude and how we're in control of our happiness and how we're supposed to think "good thoughts". Meanwhile, the world around us continues to spiral down the toilet as part of the last great flush of human civilization. No matter how dire the circumstances, we must NEVER give up "HOPE"! We must fight to our last breath to maintain the belief that "goodness" and "right" will win out in the end after all. The majority of our popular fiction and mythology drives that concept into our heads every day. If you give up, you're finished! If you give in, there's no chance of winning the battle. If you throw in the towel, the fight is OVER!
The question this attitude raises in my mind is, how can any sane individual reconcile the cognitive dissonance between this imposition of optimism against the overwhelming evidence of ones senses and experience that we're all fucking DOOMED?
There may have been a time when it seemed like we at least had a fighting chance, but that opportunity seems more and more like it has dissolved into oblivion, as fragile and temporal as cotton candy in the rain. Watching the political quagmire the US finds itself in has been providing the clearest example of the "death of the dream" as the "land of the free and the home of the brave" crumbles into a festering cesspool of bigotry, ignorance and superstition. The election of that bilious, orange skinned buffoon to the formerly venerated seat of "president", in my mind, was the final nail in the coffin for any sense of hope for humanity's future. The current election cycle, excruciatingly extended over two years, has provided nothing more than the spectacle of ol' "Uncle Sam" hip-deep in the quicksand, vainly struggling for release, without a branch, twig or blade of grass to grasp hold of to save his life. At this stage, the final destruction of democracy being perpetrated by the wealthy is no more than an insult slapped atop the fatal injury inflicted by the previous election.
Every day, and in every way, subsisting on this planet becomes more and more difficult. We are constantly squeezed to do more with less, to expect less for more effort and to sustain our optimism as the vice-grip gets tighter and tighter. Capitalism is a screw which constantly turns and demands greater output with more efficiency for increased profits, the benefits of which are funneled up to fewer and fewer beneficiaries. The bottom of the pyramid is expected to suffice with as little as possible while the top is engorged with riches beyond anyone's ability to indulge. The disparity between these extremes only increases as the mechanism constantly pushes for more and more for less and less.
This is an unsustainable system, not only economically and socially, but also environmentally, which is where we are about to pay the greatest price. The populace of this planet are being buffeted against the opposing rocks of climate crises and social implosion as the demand for resources becomes greater while the availability of them diminishes. Lack of access to basic infrastructural elements such as food and medical care creates the potential for pandemics (oh hi, COVID-19!) while natural disasters inflict destruction on vulnerable populations incapable of rebuilding from their rubble.
Despite their long history of abuses and atrocities, people are turning increasingly to social movements founded in ignorance and prejudice. The ranks of groups such as the white nationalists and other race based isolationist movements continue to grow and thrive in this climate as uneducated, blinkered and impoverished masses keep turning to support the very people who continue to deprive them of opportunities. Instead of realizing the nature and identities of their true oppressors, they opt to lash out against other disenfranchised groups who are just as much victims of these very same oppressors. The inertia these majority populations provide in terms of cover for the people manipulating them makes it essentially impossible to counteract their influence when it comes to elections where democracy is supposedly our last hope of salvation. Combined with voter suppression, gerrymandering, and flat out corruption, there is essentially no chance for alternative or honest political discourse to occur.
The media landscape has done everything possible to make this bad situation even worse. Media outlets routinely disseminate misleading or downright deceptive information in the guise of "news". The "commander in cheat" of the US has, in his own idiot-savant way, parleyed the concept of "fake news" into a means of discrediting truth itself, to the point where his followers are no longer capable of even the most basic skepticism with regards to the information they're being fed. All the while, the so-called "alternative" side crumbles into petty squabbles over language manipulation, fleeing from terms such as "socialist" because it has been demonized without question by either side.
With all this, however, we're supposed to still have hope for change. We're supposed to believe that there's some magic bullet out there that's going to set it all to rights. If I say I've given up hoping for salvation, I'm considered to be suffering from clinical "depression" or lacking in the "right attitude". Whatever the case, it is never considered a sane, justified and healthy thing to honestly recognized the hopelessness of this situation and begin to try to work from a position which acknowledges that the evil within our species has taken root and bloomed into full flower.
There is no honor in fighting a losing battle. The chances of surviving it at all become lower and lower the more one struggles against the inevitable. There are times when retreat or surrender may be the best strategy by which to move forward. Pretending like all these problems are simply going to work out one day is not only just delusional, it's dangerous. It's also unhealthy psychologically to keep forcing oneself to be optimistic in the face of something so obviously desperate. When the storm has blown down the walls, it makes no sense to keep hiding in the house. It's time to find some other shelter.
