My Rejection of "Positive Pessimism"

"Positive Pessimism" is my working phrase for an attitude justified in various philosophical, ideological or even mystical ways that people of genuine intellect and human feeling are increasingly adopting as problems such as climate change, economic downturns, declining middle class, and growing poverty worsen. I reject this stance, in whatever way it is rationalized, because it is one that will only make things easier for those who are creating these problems. I understand that people need to find a central idea they can attach themselves to in order to avoid the mentally paralyzing effects of despair and frustration. However, those of us given intellect and possessing genuine human feeling need to stand up for civilization -- not abandon it. So what do I mean by "positive pessimism"? Well, I use it to describe a collection of attitudes that are coalescing in various individuals who have lost their faith in the ideals of Western Civilization, but who want to preserve a positive attitude as they watch the pillars fall. Among religious or spiritually-driven people, it is (apparently unconsciously) re-instating a self-enslaving attitude once used by authoritarian religions both in the Occident and the Orient: this world cannot be improved but only endured. Ugh! This idea comes from a fatalistic attitude that we are put on this Earth by God, gods or angels only to be tested by negative forces, "to be purified by a refiner's fire". I do not argue against the point that life's challenges are an opportunity to discover new strengths and greater depths of compassion. It is quite true. But have we suddenly suffered amnesia for everything that has been accomplished in the name of humanity since the days of the Ancient Greeks and Hebrews? Right now, most of those in actual control of our now global society are not community-builders -- they value only profit not civilization. We must not mistake plutocracy for civilization. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater! The bad things we are experiencing on this planet are not the fault of civilization but of greed -- which is not a civilized behavior at all. So now we have people preaching in both secular and sacred spheres that we need to withdraw from civilization, become backwoods anchorites with little gardens. That's nice for those who can afford the land and its taxes without also having to put on a tie and earn supporting funds in the capitalist world that still exists on the next main highway. Maybe I should be clear by what I mean by "civilization". I do not use the term loosely, nor do I mean it in the sneering way of Victorian colonialists. I mean it in the way people of the Ancient World, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and progressive 20th century society meant it: a way of living that makes community and individual life in this world better through a coherent system of shared and mutually supported ideals. This is achieved through public education, responsible science and technology, the arts, literature, honorably competitive sports, the social sciences, moral philosophy, inspiring architecture and aesthetics, the art and science of medicine. Let me be clear. These things do not create poverty in the developing world -- greed does this. These things do not create economic decline in developed countries -- greed does this. These things do not destroy and degrade the natural world -- greed does this. We must stand up for (and protect) the graces of civilization! If we abandon civilization as Pericles meant it, as Plato meant it, as Hillel meant it, as Seneca meant it, as Alfred the Great meant it, as Dante meant it, as Nachmanides meant it, as Erasmus meant it, as Kant meant it, as Franklin Roosevelt meant it, as Gandhi meant it, as John F. Kennedy meant it, as Kenneth Clark meant it, as Martin Luther King, Jr meant it -- we abandon the collective soul we have worked so hard to form since our species began the road of rejecting barbarism.