Healthy Pessimism

Dr. Chicago and his Dirty Fingernail Democrat Assistants

They are ready to ram a big health care suppository up our rear ends, but Americans are refusing to drop 'em and bend over. This has caused much angst in the press

Tempo Fugit
Amy Walter, at National Journal, gets to the bottom of it, citing trust, or a lack thereof in government. She describes a focus group of independent voters she observed. Half the group voted for Obama. Their message: What's the rush?

Once the conversation turned to health care, the overwhelming message was pretty simple: slow down.

One participant worried that Congress couldn't possibly complete comprehensive health care reform in just six months. Another said it "can't be done overnight" and that doing something "too fast" could make things worse.

For independents, then, the issue seems to be less about specific elements of a health care plan -- public option versus a co-op -- than a fear that Congress has created an artificial timetable that is causing them to rush through what should be a thought-out, balanced plan.

Good ideas get better with time -- Bad ideas rot in the sunlight
That is why the Dems are in a fevered hurry to ram this through. But the electorate is not so rash. Essayist Alain De Botton would see nothing wrong with such pessimism. Indeed we are following in the footsteps of Seneca and reverting to our Christian and Stoic tendencies.

Unbounded, unfounded optimism is neither natural nor founded in reality

It’s time to recognize how odd and counterproductive is the optimism on which we have grown up. For the last 200 years, despite occasional shocks, the Western world has been dominated by a belief in progress, based on its extraordinary scientific and entrepreneurial achievements.

But from a broader historical perspective, this optimism is an anomaly. Humans have spent the greater part of their existence drawing a curious comfort from expecting the worst. In the West, lessons in pessimism derive from two sources: Roman Stoic philosophy and Christianity. It may be time to remind ourselves of a few of their lessons—not to add to our misery but to alleviate our injured surprise and sorrow.

Stuff Happens
Botton reminds us of the unbounded optimism we all invested in the Wall Street whiz kids. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid now consume over half of the federal budget. The Post Office is $8 Billion in the red this year. The hole is getting deeper, and we just keep digging.

William Butler Yeats tells us "Things fall apart, the center will not hold." Calamity, disaster, grinding misery and boring drudgery interrupted periodically by some modicum of enlightened civilized peace is the story of mankind. Alain De Botton sums it up well.

We should instead remember the great pessimistic voices of history, of which I cherish two in particular. One is Seneca: “What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”

The other is the French moralist Chamfort: “A man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead.”

Chamfort also said:

"If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France."

Oh that we could be so lighthearted about our own current situation. After all, seems like lately Washington has been providing us a toad a day.

National Journal - Amy Walter
City Journal - Alain De Botton

No We Can't!

John Derbyshire of National Review Online has written a curmudgeonly piece railing against irrational optimism. It's an entertaining read that is even more apt in light of recent developments. I'm sure the jackasses who wrecked our financial system were full of exuberant optimism and overinflated self-esteem.

This hits home with me because, like the author, I do not believe in the perfectibility of man. We are flawed vessels. This brought to my mind William Butler Yeats' poem, "The Second Coming."

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Derbyshire unloads on the liberals, but I must note that conservatives fall prey to unreasoned optimism as well. Here's the money quote:

Today, however, American optimism has got completely out of hand. A corrective is needed. The corrective must come from conservatives, the people who understand that "human nature has no history." We must revive the fine tradition of conservative pessimism. In this age, optimism is for children and fools. And liberals.

Some children will be left behind. You cannot "remake the Middle East" or "defeat evil." The poor will always be with us. Black and white will never mingle together in unselfconscious harmony. Corporations will not research and explore without hope of profit. Russia will not become Sweden. Forty million immigrants speaking a single language will not assimilate.

He makes a very good point. Conservatives used to be against not just risky schemes, but any "scheme" at all. Proper pessimism would keep us out of dubious overseas enterprises and prevent hundreds of billions of new government spending.