SNP’s word of the day: Optimism

Word: Optimism

Meaning: A sense of hope and confidence—not certainty—about the future.

Usage: “Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair.”

You should know it because: Jack Layton, until recently head of the NDP and official opposition leader in Canada, died yesterday, and he wrote us a letter. Already, I’ve seen the above quote—and love, hope, and optimism—repeated ad near-infinitum on Facebook, reblogged on Tumblr, made into orange posters, and hung in cubicles. The message resonates not because it fits the current mood, but because it strikes a clear note of dissonance.

I think fewer people, now that the Age of Oprah and Secrets and Positive Thinking is on the wane, would call themselves optimistic. I know I wouldn’t. And yet I get out of bed every day; that’s optimistic. When there’s the least reasonable cause for optimism, there is the greatest emotional, almost spiritual, need.

“Optimum” is the Latin word for best; I just learned this and, being a secret nerd, want to start signing emails “Optimum, SNP.” No? Anyway. Optimism means hoping for the best, which doesn’t mean anything near perfect. Philosophically, optimism is rooted in the idea that we live in—as per the 18th-century German polymath Gottfried Leibniz—the best of all possible worlds. Current, more secular philosopher Nicholas Rescher further contends, via a series of metaphysical arguments I can’t pretend to quite grasp, that our universe exists simply because it is the best.

But here’s another thing about the universe: it is always expanding in all directions, getting better and worse with speedy simultaneity. And so optimism is merely a matter of picking sides—and then fighting. It’s not really so foolish—as per Voltaire in his satiric, Leibniz-eviscerating Candide—or blind.

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