Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

On December 3, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote in a message to Congress, “Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible. This is not so.”

I think of this statement as I read the headline of the latest issue of Positive News: Peace Is Inevitable.

I wish it would be so, but the plain truth is that peace is not inevitable. If peace were inevitable, we would all have to do nothing but sit back and watch it happen, and no matter how hard the warmongers worked to create new armed conflicts, they would be unable to do so.

War is not inevitable, but neither is peace. Those who publish Positive News have passed the threshold from reasonable optimism into foolishness.

I understand what the people at Positive News are trying to do, emphasizing good things that are happening all around the world, and perhaps if one attends a peace conference in the beautiful city of Vancouver, one might really believe for a brief while that peace is inevitable.

Yet, the problem of bad news is really not in the telling of the bad news itself. We will not make the world a better place just by talking about the world as if it is a good place. Good news itself doesn’t make the world better.

Despair is not called for, but neither is dishonest optimism. Assessing the chances of progress realistically helps us know where we have to begin, so that we don’t start with a victory lap for peace and enlightenment while the struggle is still going strong.