Wednesday Wisdom reader Nicole wrote in recently, asking questions about
One book I really love is Lauren Berlant’s book Cruel Optimism. The central argument is that optimism becomes cruel when the thing that we desire (whether that’s a person, a particular system, or a fantasy of the “good life” to come) actually becomes an obstacle to our flourishing in the present (the American Dream is a classic example of this – low socio-economic populations are promised the dream of the American good life if they just labour hard enough, but what ends up happening is that the promise of this good life to come just ends up sustaining their existence within the capitalist machine of cheap labour & class immobility). I love it because it’s a concept that I think really helps to explain why we end up sustaining some really shitty systems and ways of living, and ignoring the ways that people, systems, and ways of living continue to fail us in the present.
I’ve been hearing a lot of optimism coming out of our Store Teams about the year to come – there’s this sense that the worst of Covid is over and the stress and pressure of the last two years is about to subside so it is time to look to the future with optimism. But something about this isn’t sitting right with me. I wonder if it is just cruel optimism that keeps us believing in the good to come while the systems within which we work continue to push us towards things like burnout and compassion fatigue? I’d be really curious to hear what your thoughts are on this!
