~a column by Colleen O’Brien
David Brooks, talking head, columnist and political know-a-lot, calls this election year a “pornography of pessimism.” Gotta love the English language and one of its superb wordsmiths, however you might disagree or agree with his politics.
With a cast of thousands running for president and other offices, all of them yelling about the dire state of affairs in this country, Brooks is right on.
Enough already. Or tone it down, or something. A tad of pessimism will creep into our lives now and then, but expecting a surfeit of it is indeed pornographic. The idea that evil predominates in this world and that we should expect the worst is a way of life to some, a probability to others.
But, honestly, I can’t go there for very long because it makes me lie down on the floor and stare at the ceiling. If I had to be expecting the worst from people, books, nature, television, movies, conversation, songs, food . . . really, it’s just a depressing, dumb way to proceed.
There is bad stuff out there, including bad weather; there is bad behavior, there are greedy folks, angry people (boy, are there), but I think they get trained in pessimism and become stuck there, mouths shouting, eyes blazing, fists pumping. Nobody’s reminding them about the optimist side of the coin. They could be living on a garbage float in the middle of the Pacific; let ’em think about that if they’re so crazy about pessimism.
It’s normal to be disgruntled about politicians, although those who make a living asking about things like this tell us that we really like our own politicians but dislike all the others. That makes about as much sense as believing in Santa but dissing the Easter bunny — a definite lack of common sense to begin with and real inconsistency to end with. You may hate all Martians and Haitians and Parisians, but how can you be crabby about getting to eat a Hershey bar? Find something to be optimistic about! It seems to be a normality to get impatient in traffic, but what about if you were in a wagon advancing a whopping 10 miles a day? You may get crabby about having to wait so long at the eye doctor, but you might get happy if you think about all those centuries people just grew old and couldn’t see their own hands.
Buck up, folks. Get some happy in there. Quit being crabby about stuff that the media exaggerates. Turn it off. Or at least mute the political ads or watch reruns of Benny Hill or Friends or Milton Berle. Get creative, think of ways to jettison pessimism and move in on something fun to do.
Or think of solutions. I like the idea of no longer requiring attendance in Congress and all of us twittering our opinions, wants and needs to a major computer that will tell the Prez, whoever she or he will be, that we do want a Supreme Court judge nominated, or not; that we are adamant about fixing the 66,000 about-to-fall-down bridges in this country, or not; that we are in need of political reform, or not.
Just think, we could be a pure democracy, not just a representative democracy.
Maybe you’d rather be a pessimist; in your world, it might be cooler to expect the worst possible outcome to all things.
However, I’ll be going down this other path, the Polly- one, not the pissy one.
