Optimism of the Intellect, Pessimism of the Will

Apologies to Gramsci for the misappropriation, but the past couple of years have been unbearable. I almost wish I didn’t know for certain that a better world is possible—it would be easier. But the truth is undeniable. And as a cynic, nothing is more irritating than the overwhelming evidence that humanity could have a bright future.

Then you talk to people. And while I’m lucky to know some great humans, the world is overrun by a majority who’ve been conditioned to accept that things are meant to be this way. Watching them parrot the same tired lines—“human nature,” “too idealistic,” “just the way things are”—as if history isn’t littered with the graves of “unchangeable” systems, is exhausting.

You explain. You show them the cracks, the alternatives, the futures within reach. They scoff. They roll their eyes. They call it naïve. They insist things have always been this way, that they always will be. Never mind that nothing about this world was inevitable—just the result of choices made, power hoarded, and violence justified.

It’s almost enough to make you stop caring. Almost. But my skin tone is too dark for me to convincingly pull off nihilism, so instead, I find another hill to preach from, great humans to meet, and swarms of idiots to ignore.