No, it isn't easy to be an optimist. As you suggest, the mood is rare in the long course of human history and human misery. Despite that, however, there are times when it seems to arise as the spirit of an age.
And on that subject here's a long quotation from a wonderful book written in 1955, but which has remained relevant ever since because periods of optimism seem to break out every so often:
"Far more important than rate of interest and the supply of credit is the mood. Speculation on a large scale requires a pervasive sense of confidence and optimism and conviction that ordinary people were meant to be rich. People must also have faith in the good intentions and even in the benevolence of others, for it is by the agency of others that they will get rich. In 1929 Professor Dice observed: 'The common folks believe in their leaders. We no longer look upon the captains of industry as magnified crooks. He we not heard their voices over the radio? Are we not familiar with their thoughts, ambitions, and ideals as they have expressed them to us almost as a man talks to his friend?' Such a feeling of trust is essential for a boom. When people are cautious, questioning, misanthropic, suspicious, or mean, they are immune to speculative enthusiasms."
ÿÿÿ -- John Kenneth Galbraith
ÿÿÿÿÿThe Great Crash, 1929 |
