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# (Untitled)
- URL: https://joshualore.com/inthemiddleway/nations-like-political-creeds-can-be-upbeat-or/
- Published: 2015-11-28T17:57:58.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-28T17:57:58.000Z
- Author: Joshua Lore
- Tags: Uncategorized, #Migrated-1788408094757, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-09-03 00:01

> Nations, like political creeds, can be upbeat or downbeat. Along with North Korea, the United States is one of the few countries on earth in which optimism is almost a state ideology. For large sectors of the nation, to be bullish is to be patriotic, while negativity is a species of thought crime. Pessimism is thought to be vaguely subversive. Even in the most despondent of times, a collective fantasy of omnipotence and infinity continues to haunt the national unconscious. It would be almost as impossible to elect a US president who advised the nation that its best days were behind it as it would be to elect a chimpanzee, though as far as that goes there have been one or two near misses.

Terry Eagleton, ‘Hope Without Optimism’