Halfway through the week it happened: a basket of Omikron data appeared on the table, and the corona scientists gathered to fish out the data and provide it with meaning.
„It is not unclear or Omikron is serious, but how serious it is,” epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani, who consistently assumes the worst, warned on Twitter. “We will get through this final challenge,” wrote molecular physician Eric Topol. Yes, Omikron continues to break through the defenses. But look how our T cells hold up!
This difference in tone did not surprise me at all. There are days when I consider unfollowing Deepti Gurdasani because her pessimism suits me just as bad. Eric Topol always knows how to cheer me up with his glass-half-full approach.
Still: I do not agree with the statement that optimism is a moral duty, from Immanuel Kant, repeated by Karl Popper and proclaimed this spring by Hubert Bruls. Firstly, pessimism also has its good sides: if everyone thought ‘this will be all right’, no one would build dikes, stock up on road salt and scale up ICs. Second, optimism comes to some people, while others are simply incapable of it. It’s mean to make it a moral issue: some people would automatically be ‘good’, while others would be doomed to limbo.
Recently two books came my way, rationality by psychologist Steven Pinker and irrationality by philosopher Justin EH Smith. Pinker believes in the triumph of reason: “Man is a species that possesses an elementary faculty of reason.” Rather, Smith emphasizes that irrationality encompasses “the greatest part of human life”: dreams, passions, drug use, religion, conspiracy theories, and so forth.
Steven Pinker is an optimistic man: it is his trademark. Justin Smith, on the other hand, mentioned one of his latest essays A Surfeit of Black Bile: an excess of black bile. Smith describes the interior of his psychoanalyst and his skepticism about the DSM. I have got no depression, he writes; I ben a black man. (Incidentally, he is also a very funny person and I would recommend anyone, melancholy or not, to read the essay.)
We often talk about privilege – think gender, class, skin color, education level, nationality – but we overlook one type: character. Qualities such as self-control, emotional stability and low sleep can determine our functioning. “I keep waiting for characterological diversity to appear on the list of species difference that we need to develop a better understanding of,” writes Justin Smith in yet another essay.
Kathryn Paige Harden, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Texas, does so in her recently published book The Genetic Lottery. Why DNA Matters For Social Equality. Following the liberal philosopher John Rawls, she describes life as a lottery, in which getting certain qualities is partly a matter of luck. That applies not only to intelligence, writes Harden, but also to non-cognitive skills.
Such as optimism. This characteristic is partly innate, according to psychological research. Then that optimism is associated with even more good things, such as health, perseverance and good relationships with others. Pessimism is to humans what Deet is to mosquitoes: it keeps them at bay. On Twitter I see people joking about Deepti Gurdasani’s doom and gloom and suddenly I am reminded of a deeply pessimistic teammate from the time, more than twenty years ago, when I was still playing hockey. “We are really going to lose 13-0,” she usually said before the opponent had hit one ball. This attitude earned her zero friends on the team.
Optimism is a double happiness. Not only does it influence your reality in a favorable way (for example because people like you), you also experience that reality more positively. You see an opponent and think: we can have them. You look at history and see more and more rationality. You study corona data and see triumphant T cells. That too is a privilege – quite an important one in times of crisis.
Floor Rusman ([email protected]) is editor of NRC
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 11 December 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of December 11, 2021
#Optimism #privilege