The cheerful pessimist
Friday February 29, 2008
Categories: Culture, Decline and fall
I like this passage from an interview Mike Cromartie once did with William F. Buckley: [Cromartie:]This is interesting, because you once described yourself as a philosophical pessimist who remained a temperamental optimist. Let me put it this way and see...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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No comment here on the weightier aspects of this post. Just want to say that my favorite neighbor here in the DC 'burbs is from your home state. She organizes an annual block party, holds Mardi Gras parades in our cul-de-sac, and can generally be counted upon to stir up festivity no matter what. This being a Lenten Friday, it's painful to think about her gumbo.
As to liturgy, books, art and children... what else is worth living for?
here's my only problem with this view:
"shoring up fragments against the ruin."
for something to be in "ruin", in must be so in comparison to that same thing that was once, at the very least, not "in ruin".
when was there a time when one could say that there was not ever-pervasive "ruin"?
answer: never.
It's where (as I commented on the last thread) the personal optimism and societal pessimism interact into brutal sarcasm that the danger point is, though. Don't you think?
I say this, having bipolar disorder, as someone with a very similar problem, not to cast stones.
Doesn't it depend on what your bottle is half-full OF?
Also, we aren't sufficiently aware of the news paradox: stuff gets into the news precisely because it's unusual (man bites dog). But once it's IN the news, those who watch it tend to think it's a lesson in How the World Generally Works. I'm starting to think the TV News should be required by the FCC to run a scroll along the bottom saying something like "This is the news. That means it is the rare and unusual. It doesn't happen very often. Most of the time, most people lives peaceful, decent lives."
Doesn't it depend on what your bottle is half-full OF?
Chianti Classico or Abita Amber works best for me!
I've sometimes thought of taking a break from the news (including TV, radio, and Internet), and seeing how I feel afterwards. Has anyone else ever done this? I love news and especially politics, but it is often depressing and leaves me cynical. On one hand I get annoyed that there are so many people who don't seem to care about the larger world around them. But on the other hand, maybe they are smarter than I am - by ignoring all the negative information overload, they can lead happier and more fulfilled lives.
Any thoughts? I really mean it when I say that I'm thinking of "fasting" from news and politics. Unfortunately that might have to include this blog, otherwise I'll get sucked in again.
Rod, I enjoyed your last paragraph. It reminds me of the times I had as a kid growing up in the midwest. We just loved upcoming blizzards with hot chocolate, sitting with our chins on the window sill during thunderstorms counting between lightning strike and thunder, and wandering out in the yard, scanning the horizons during tornado watches.
Rod, your last paragraph reminded me of something else, namely the possibly that optimism can lurk within a supposedly pessimistic attitude. Even calamities can have surprising benefits.
Take James Howard Kunstler, for instance. He think that oil shortages will completely destroy the industrial economy. This will result in mass starvations and other untold horrors. However, he remains hopeful that even such a harrowing crisis will have its upside, as people are forced by circumstance to return to genuine community, ecological stability, and renewed culture.
I, on the other hand, am rather more pessimistic about the energy situation, but that's because I don't expect it to be nearly as bad as he thinks. I think we'll see global depression, possibly war, and maybe even mass starvation, but I don't expect that we'll revert to a pre-industrial economy. I think we'll preserve the basic structures of economic modernity, but they'll probably revert to the more exploitative and environmentally destructive models of the 19th century. I think the cultural weaknesses we've developed over the last century will make it incredibly difficult to put anything sustainable back in place. And I think that in America we'll be more willing to trade off our grandchildren's survival and the pleasantries of freedom than our accustomed wealth.
I sure hope I'm wrong!
"I don't know how one can be a traditional Christian and a traditional conservative and not be pessimistic about the times. Perhaps that was always true."
Yes, maybe the world is going to Hell on a handcart, but it has always been so, no? If it's not one thing, it's something else. And yet, alongside the decline, there is also renewal. The ruins are always falling; the ruins are also always being rebuilt. Cromartie's analysis seems spot on: God and his sovereignty and his providence are always at work in his world. "And for all this, nature is never spent ... because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings."
I've become increasingly impatient with conservatism’s unrelenting pessimism. (I'm not including Mr. Dreher in this impatience. I am and will remain a sympathtic reader of his. This is not an attack on Rod, is what I'm saying.) I'm beginning to think at least some of this pessimism is sin, namely, presumption and despair. Presumption in believing that the rescue of the world is entirely up to us, that we're doomed if we don't do something. Then, if (when) that fails, despairing that nothing at all can be done. That the ruin is irrevocable; our state, helpless; and our fate, desolation. The tradition tells us these sins are twins, each against hope. Since God is sovereign, since providence is always at work, since the Holy Spirit does brood over out bent world, we must always be hopeful. The ruins will be rebuilt.
And even if it were true that these days are ones of irreversible decline and fall in a way unique to history, so what? I mean, what's the upshot of that observation? What's the take-home lesson? Does it require of us moral action different from that of any other age or time? No, I think our calling as human persons remains stable and the core of our moral responsibilities fixed. Good cannot be, in essence, a different thing in bad times from what it is in good times. What is required of us has been and always will remain the same: To ally ourselves, in Wendell Berry's words, "with those things that are worthy: light, air, water, earth; plants and animals; human families and communities; the traditions of decent life, good work, and responsible thought; the religious traditions; the essential stories and songs."
Conservatives are supposed to be suspicious of change, else why be a conservative. I dont see Rod's world view as being especially negative given his basic philosophical world view. Read history and you can always find folks who think the world is about to end.
I think that the personal happiness/optimism seen in Buckley and other professional conservatives comes from many sources. It can come from faith. It can come from solid friendships, family and work. I suspect it also partially comes from day to day interaction and observation of the world all around us. That mother playing with her kid in the park may be a flaming liberal but she actually really radiates love for her child. Try as we may to demonize those with whom we disagree its hard to maintain that degree of hatred and anger for a person with intellectual integrity when both sides are well intentioned.
Steve
It's where (as I commented on the last thread) the personal optimism and societal pessimism interact into brutal sarcasm that the danger point is, though. Don't you think?
There are markedly depressive and fairly frenetic takes on various things around here, Larry.
Exactly. Hey Jillian, make me a drink, willya?
it's quite hard to avoid being a cheerful pessimist... I mean...
who hasn't experienced something like eating a great piece of chocolate while thinking about the impoverished billions around the world?
it's usual that those of us who have the internet access to be here also have access to an abundance of good stuff...
and families and friends...
the cheerful...
but "decline and fall"...
yes... when there is access to the cheerful, there is always the potential to lose it all and join those impoverished billions...
the pessimist...
what is perhaps most amazing about all of this is that the Absent God allows so many of us to be of good cheer while billions suffer in their miserable conditions...
I suspect much pessimism comes from this fact that God does not act, react or interact in the world at all...
so while we sometimes find ourselves cheerful...
there is no divine source of security...
the Absent God leaves us all on our own...
no wonder pessimism often breaks in...
pass the chocolate...
cheer faith hope love joy peace to all...
Impeach God...
Many times God uses people to act. But, people have to be willing. Hence if you saw someone fall down under a heavy load. would you just comment on it or make an effort to help them up and carry some of their load? Pessimism can be helped by helping others. Things may be bad, but... Instead of just complaining about how bad everything is, why not do things that make an improvement.Just being kind can make a difference "these days"-- Oops there goes that old pessimism kicking in. Oh, and God speaks and is present, but you won't notice if you ignore it.
Well, I HAD commented on the last thread :-(
Pessimism is optimism with its eyes newly opened, especially if you have kids or pay taxes. And cynicism, its relative, is an important survival skill. Combine the two, and you have an approach to life that I refer to as "realism".
The "cheerful" part ? It exists, but as a minor, temporary and (probably) self-deceptive condition, at best. Compare that piece of chocolate--delicious, no ?--to the arrival of your tax bill, or being told that fixing the brakes on the car will cost you $ 500.
Anyone who, in this world, is NOT a Realist, is simply not paying attention.
Your servant,
Lord Karth
Besides, I don't know how one can be a traditional Christian and a traditional conservative and not be pessimistic about the times. Rod Dreher
Tradition is about looking at the present and comparing it to the past with the past being close to perfection. That would be great if there was one moment in the past when it was close to perfection. Sadly every one of those moments that could be considered are only one moment in one life. If the moment was embraced in it's entirety we'd see that moment as anything but worthy of maintaining for most of us.
I see evolution as truth. Not just physical evolution as in a species but the social one too. What Rod embraces as chaos I appreciate as process.
If we sat down with Rod and examined his the traditions he finds so important we'd find them different from his parents. We'd find them a lot different from his grandparents. And the traditions he wants to pass on to his children are different today than they were five years ago and they will have changed in five years.
Viewing the chaos as part of the process allows us to appreciate the moment for what it is.
Not to rebuke the spirit of Rod's subject header, but I've always thought of myself as The Tearful Optimist...
kibbles and bits to all...
Teach Dog...
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