Have a Coke and a Smile

RALEIGH – One of the most underappreciated assets in politics happens to be widely appreciated as an asset in virtually every other field of human endeavor: optimism.

To be optimistic is to exhibit an ability to get through tough times, to focus one’s resources on promising opportunities rather than frustrating distractions, to do more of what you are good at rather than waste scarce resources on dead-ends – or to, as the Monty Python troupe put it, “always look on the bright side of life.”

To be optimistic is not to be unrealistic. Someone who sees only what he wants to see, rather than what is, is not an optimist. He’s a fantasist. But in the real world, even the most challenging of problems or horrendous of tragedies present us with opportunities for education, rededication, reinvention, or redemption. There’s a reason why people who are generally optimistic rather than pessimistic tend to live longer, healthier, and happier lives and rise to leadership positions within their businesses, families, churches, or communities.

In politics and political debate, there are strong temptations to let realism become fatalism, or to let skepticism become cynicism. If you or your team is currently out of power, you are tempted to look for evidence that your rivals’ policies aren’t working, evidence that can become ammunition for the next debate or campaign. If you or your team is in power but threatened, you are tempted to look for the worst possible things to think or say about your rivals and their policies.

The good news – and there is always a lot of good news for those optimistic enough to seek it out – is that human societies are so complicated, and trends in human relations determined by so many different variables, that even the most incompetent or malicious political movement is limited in how much damage it can do.

Most people don’t live and breathe politics. Even when governments do incredible dumb things, most people find ways to conduct their daily affairs around the resulting obstructions – to produce goods and services for sale, make deals, make friends, fall in love, marry and rear children, worship, recreate, and relax.

We all know that the past century has brought the world devastating global wars, ethnic conflict and genocide, economic turmoil, social ills, coarseness, disco music, and many other worrisome things.

But the past century has also brought the world vast, widely shared improvements in living standards, amazing advances in health care and technology, greater political and personal freedom in many parts of the world, and extensive international trading relationships that reduce the price and increase the availability of goods and services that make our lives better.

The reality is that human beings are healthier, wealthier, and less likely to be murdered by criminals, rogues, or their own governments than ever before in history. They are also less likely to be treated or judged unfairly based on race, color, religion, sex, or other personal characteristics. As the Christian Science Monitor recently reported:

• The global rate of death by violence has been declining for a long time. Scholars who study the subject say that fewer wars are starting, more are ending, and those that remain are contained within smaller areas.

• True poverty – not the relative measures we here about in developed countries but true, grinding, life-threatening destitution – has been declining for decades. Literally billions of people in places such as China, India, Indonesia, and South America have risen above poverty for the first time. This is an historic achievement.

• Human beings are more likely than ever before to live under representative governments, with elected officials and at least some constitutional limits on state power.

Do there still remain grievous problems? Of course. Could some of these advances reverse themselves? Yes, though not entirely. Are there plenty of things to be worried about – economic stagnation, the possibility of pandemics, the dangers of terrorists or terror states obtaining weapons of mass destruction? Certainly.

On balance, however, the trends of the past several decades – and in some areas the past several centuries – have been positive, not negative. As an optimist, I think these trends will continue, particularly if we value human freedom and work to protect and expand it.

As that insightful philosopher Snow White put it well, we should all “whistle while we work” and recognize that:

With a smile and a song, life is just a bright sunny day.
Your cares fade away and your heart is young.

When you smile and you sing, everything is in tune and it’s spring
And life flows along with a smile and a song.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.