Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.
Antonio Gramsci Italian Philosopher, Communist, Politician 1891-1937
I heard this just now on a Point of View on the radio. In fact I didn't listen to the whole 10 minutes because I was replying to Sarah's comment on my previous post and only caught the Gramsci quote but I thought it was worthy of further thought.
But how well that quote sums up life today if only we could see through the pessimistic intellectuals who like to spread the gloom and doom, and worse, often if stripped away to bare roots, is for nothing more than there own personal gain within the university hierarchies behind academic doors.
Scaremongers for the future, the intellect of us as individuals, filtering in the worry about everything and nothing that might or might not happen, and the intellectuals hoping to infiltrate the decision of Parliament from the universities across the land that they know best and all the bad things are definitely going to happen and this country is nothing and it filters in until everybody starts to believe it. Positives are not fashionable.
And then there is the optimism of the will of each of us, who underneath all the gloom and doom that we hear ourselves discussing and nodding to, because it is the popular belief. Underneath it all we have optimism for ourselves and plan and do things and, if only secretly if nothing else, look to the future with optimism but we mustn't tell anyone. If only we would stand up and shout it from the rooftops. It would do everyone in this country a lot of good.
0 Comments