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Now Is The Time For The "Optimism of The Will" as Antonio Gramsci Once Described it. [1]
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Date: 2025-01-25
Gramsci’s idea of “optimism of the will” offers us a way of countering the urge towards full-blown despair, while willing, through our actions, the world we would like to see. The full quote is something like: “I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” When I think of the first clause (which may be summed up as “pessimism of the intellect”) I think of many people on this site. ( confirmation bias no doubt also comes into play here).
Now, as we are a relatively smart bunch, I note that your “pessimism” usually comes from data and intellect— the arguments and numbers ( and personal experience) you use to tell us why things are bad or hopeless. Note that Gramsci is suggesting that one must literally drive oneself— through sheer force of will— towards a state of seeming opposite belief (optimism). For Gramsci, hope is not a noun; it is a verb. Optimism is the demanded answer to the stasis that is despair ( a byproduct of isolated, ruminating intellect ). Critical intellect is useless without the desire to apply it in real life.
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