optimism is ruining america, or 'I want to believe'

I just got into a little conversation with a friend of mine who honestly believes that his newly found positive outlook on life is changing things for him. Put the bad shit behind you, don't focus on it, move forward. How deliciously American this is, right? We're constantly told to be positive, look on the bright side. Life is what you make of it. Improve yourself and your mind frame. If that doesn't work, Zoloft certainly will.

And this isn't the only conversation where I have been accused of being a cynic, hopeless, depressive, of living too much in my own head. Don't get me wrong, I think there is some real beauty in the world, and I actually WISH I could see the world through some rose colored glasses where I believed in fate and that everything was going to be ok in the end. I want, as it were, to believe. Almost.

The problem with that outlook is that it strips us of our agency, of our power. If everything will be ok, if we just trust fate, or God, or whatever, well then what can WE do to make the world around us better. I only almost want to believe because this world view, to me, is bleak. Isn't the world more beautiful if our relationships are not written by fate but happy accidents that we, ourselves, work to make strong? If happiness isn't something we deserve, isn't a birthright, but rather is something we forge for ourselves? If we believe, truly, that the problems around us aren't put there by fate but are products of an unjust system and can therefore be changed?

It's not a depressed mind that says that the world can be a shitty place. It's a realistic mind. How many kids have died from malaria while I've been writing this lil blog post? How many people have been abused by a spouse, a family member? How many kids are at school right now but not learning?

I'm not advocating for hopelessness, for that, like believing in fate, promotes inertia. But we have to be realistic about the world around us, about the problems, if we can hope to change them.

And fuck self improvement, we make ourselves better through working for our community. This individualistic (and uniquely American, although it's beginning to be globalized) path to happiness is a tool of oppression that keeps people from working for each other. Just do yoga and you'll be fine. Depressed? Take this. Don't even THINK about trying to change the causes of your ennui, the way the world works, and works you. Treat the symptoms and shut up.

The world sucks, but there's solace to be found in making it better and surrounding yourself with people equally committed to the struggle. In this I do believe. Maybe it takes as much faith as believing in God, but without my faith, this faith, that we can do good work for people in the world, I would slip into hopelessness. And that is something I would not survive.