* Happy, in this context, has more than just one meaning. But M. Night Shyamalan didn’t get famous by putting the twist in the title, did he?
A lot of media attention has been given to the spike in suicides among homosexual teens during the last year. The “It Gets Better Project” is a prevention movement launched in response to the problem of these suicides.
For this project, many famous members of the world community have chimed in to provide support to anyone struggling with harassment, bullying or just with the general attitude some people have toward homosexuals and homosexuality.
This movement embodies optimism of the purest form.
What is optimism? There is a Greek myth about Pandora’s Box. Pandora, the first woman, who was created to trick Prometheus into undoing his creation, man, was given a box that she was never supposed to open. Eventually she, being a curious person, opened the box releasing all evil into the world. But, and this is the important part, at the last moment Pandora closes the box, and one evil is not released: hopelessness.
On theme with this, the word “optimism” eventually traces back to Latin (as most good things do).
In Latin, “optimus” means “the best” and “optare” means “to wish.” To be an optimist means nothing more than to wish for the best.
To desire a better future.
To have hope.
From what we know now, the “It Gets Better Project” has been an effective and popular support movement rooted in optimism.
Two weeks ago, Susan Kranz wrote a Weekly article on “The dangers of optimism.” For those who generally just skip the columns and go straight to the calendar (now that The Shady Character is back), Kranz equates “optimism” with not mourning death, but becoming poisoned by a cookie, not recognizing hurt or suffering and a general sublimation of all emotion with the word “happy.” Apparently an optimist is a Stepford wife.
I disagree with Ms. Kranz on this. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the word “optimism” in her article should be replaced by “naiveté” or “delusion.”
Optimism is not a lack of all unhappy emotions. It is not an inability to see the world as it is. It is not even the belief that everything is perfect. Those are characteristics of either being insane or under 10 years old.
I would label myself as an optimistic realist. I see the world as it is, am skeptical about where it’s at (far from perfect), but recognize how it could be improved and work to see those improvements happen.
Though neither optimism nor pessimism is the perfect model of understanding human affairs, I’m curious to know how a pessimist would understand the bullying of homosexual teens. What message would a pessimist send to closeted teens? How would pessimists deal with the rash of suicides?
I know if you sat a 16-year old Skeptical Prince down and told him “no really, there are people who will think differently of you for being gay” or “you can’t write a column about your sexuality until after you’re elected Student Senate Co-President because you need to be afraid of what some people will think of you,” there’s a very good chance I would’ve turned out quite differently.
The difference here isn’t that a younger Prince would have seen the world “for what it is”—the skepticism isn’t new—but that I would have at least believed it could get better. The promise of that reality, that it gets better, is what is vitally important for a generation of teens struggling to understand their sexuality.
And at the heart of it, that is what optimism is—the belief that things at least have the potential to get better.
Maybe that makes me naïve. But there are worse things than the belief that life can improve, and it’s a message that’s particularly important to spread: It Gets Better.