Confession of an optimist

Title

Creator

Maurois, Andre

Language

English

Source

Panorama Volume XVII (No. 5) May 1966

Year

1966

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

An internationally famous writer tells us why he is not a pessimist

Fulltext

■ An internationally famous writer tells us why he is not a pessimist. CONFESSION OF AN OPTIMIST My wife, my children, my friends tell me that I am an optimist. “Too much of an optimist” is what they say. “If you fell off a cliff,” one of them told me, “you’d be thinking that the bottom was cushioned, and until you landed you’d be quite se rene.” I am, I admit, an optimist; but I do not believe, like Vol taire’s Pangloss, that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. I know the horrors and difficulties of life: I have had my share of them. But I refuse to re gard humanity’s condition as terrible. .True, we are spin ning on a lump of dirt in il limitable space, without be ing too sure why; true, we will surely die. To me this is a set of facts, a situation to be accepted courageously. The only problem is: What can we do, and what ought we to do, while we are here? I am optimistic in the sense that I believe it is possible to better our own lives and, in a general way, humanity’s life. I believe that tremen dous progress has been made in this direction. Man has, to a large extent, overcome nature. His command of things is far greater than it used to be. The Pessimist replies: “Yes, but these mar velous inventions are used only for war, and humanity is on the road to self destruc tion.” I do not believe that this is necessarily so. It depends upon ourselves, and my opti mism is largely a product of my faith in human nature. I know that human nature also has its greatnesses. My natural reaction to a circumstance is to seek what good there may be in it ra ther than what evil it may bring. For example, let us say that I am ill and condem ned to a month in bed. The Pessimist would think: “What a disaster!” I am more likely to think, “What May 1966 21 luck! Of course it’s a nui sance, interfering with my work, and it may be painful; but 30 days of peace! At last I’m going to have time to think as much as I like.” That is the nature of my optimism. I believe that it has its origin in a happy childhood. I had the finest parents a boy could have; they always treated me with love and justice; and that gave me, in those first forma tive years, a robust confi dence in human nature. School might have marred my innocent faith, because children are only too willing to give one another a fore taste of harshness. But it was there, in my philosophy class, that I had the good fortune of meeting Alain, the great est of my teachers. He too was, reproached by some, as I am, for his “blind confi dence.” Alain and I after him pledged ourselves to be opti mists because if one does not adopt invincible optimism as a standard, pessimism will be justified. For despair engen ders misfortune and failure. If I believe that I am going to fall, I will fall. If I believe that there is nothing I can do about my country’s affairs, then there is nothing I can do. In the human tribe I make the fair weather and the tempest, primarily within my self. Pessimism is contagious. If I believe my neighbor to be dishonest and show my distrust, I make him distrust ful and dishonest. “Look here,” says the Pes simist. “Do you really be lieve that this confidence in mankind, in life, is wisdom? Hasn't it brought you some frightful disappointments?” Yes, I confess that I have had some great disappointments. These past ten years — parti cularly with the horrors of Nazism, with exile, my fami ly arrested, my home pil laged, with the dangerous defection of certain friends — have given me strong reason for doubting the perfection of this universe and the peo ple in it. But after all, I have always known that wicked people existed; I have always known that in times of disaster crowds can become stupid and bestial. My optimism consisted, and still consists, solely in this: I believe that we can have a certain in fluence upon events, and that 22 PANORAMA even if we must suffer mis fortune we can overcome it by our manner of enduring it. To love the fine people about me, to avoid the wick ed, to rejoice in good, endure evil — and to remember to forget: this is my optimism. It has helped me to live. — Condensed from Your Life by Andre Maurois. LIE DETECTOR TELLS ALL Along towards the end of the war, workers in a big war plant were submitted to routine detector examinations. One of the crucial questions was: “Have you taken anything that doesn’t belong to you out of the plant?” Almost to a man, the employees answered “no.” But the lie detector said otherwise. It showed that about two out of three were lying. A little further questioning showed why. There was a- shortage of toilet paper and Kleenex at the time, and workers were making up their home defi ciencies in those products by pilfering from the plant supply. When the lie detector experts explained that the question was aimed at thefts of secret govern ment items, the lines on the lie detector charts straightened out and there was no more difficulty about answering. But during the following month, consumption of Kleenex and toilet paper in the plant fell off so sharply that the saving in cost almost equaled the expense of the security tests. — Des Moines Regis ter and Tribune. May 1966 23

pages

21+

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