Teacher had me stand on a stage and chant with scores of other students about the enviromental crisis that was about to end Western civilization. Only a pop-eyed optimist could imagine that raw materials would even exist, let alone cars, in the twenty-first century.
We live in an age where cynics have convinced us that it is better to be a pessimist than an optimist. I see no evidence that pessimists are right more often than optimists, but the tragic viewpoint has received the cultural blessing of being serious.
When I was in government school as a kid, I was told that we would be less well off than our parents, that religion was decreasing in public life, and that the future belonged to the Soviet Union. Even gas is still much cheaper than the doom sayers told me it would be in the nuclear winter in which my best option for food might be my neighbor.
I did not believe the “wise teachers” then. . . and I don’t believe the pundits now.
When it comes to America, pessimists are almost never right. So what if ten great things that could happen do happen?
In foreign affairs, five:
What if Iraq becomes a functional democracy?
What if Israel defeats the Iranian backed terrorists in their present assault?
What if their defeat at the hands of Israel brings down the Iranian regime?
What if we find Bin Laden?
What if the Beloved Tyrant of North Korea dies around the same time as Castro and both are replaced by better states?
In national affairs:
What if rising oil prices renews faith in safe nuclear and clean coal power, we start using them, and stop being energy importers?
What if the rising tide of religious children grow up to be the professors of the next generation?
What if African-Americans get tired of their votes in general elections being used by secularists to support gay marriage?
What if the economy, over the course of any decade, keeps growing and the poor become less poor?
What if the Bush court returns abortion and many other divisive social issues to the states where they belong?
All of this could happen. In fact, given the history of the United States this happy outcome is more likely to happen than not. If someone says to you, “get real”. . . then you can sensibly say to them, “You get real. You are part of the freest, most prosperous nation that ever has been. Things never turn out as badly as you say. You are the one who is not a realist. . . with your whining and worrying in a booming economy behind the protection of the most powerful army in the world. Your pessimism is self-indulgent fantasy.”
We do know one thing for sure. None of this is as likely to happen if we turn the control of the Congress over to the party of doom and gloom, the Pelosi Democrats with their pursed lips who believe that yesterday was always better than today. . . and that we are all doomed, just doomed, if we do not lower our hopes for the future. Of course, the nation survived Jimmy Carter, so it seems a good optimist would bet on the US even then, but even the promise of America can be slowed down by those who don’t believe in it.
Stay the course!