More recently, a survey from January 2022 in the United States showed the gap between personal and collective outlook at a record high, with 85 per cent of American adults reporting feeling satisfied with their own lives, and only 17 per cent satisfied with the direction in which the US is going. This gap between how optimistic we are about our personal lives and how pessimistic we are about our collective future is known as the ‘optimism gap’. There has been much debate among psychologists and economists about what fuels the gap but, whatever the reasons, pessimism about our collective futures has potentially dire consequences.
(From an essay in Psyche by Professor Jennifer M. Morton
optimism gapThis is an odd observation from a professor of Philosophy. Have philosophers had nothing to say on the matter or do they await the ‘hard data’ before they can ply the trade of analyzing its concepts and road testing them by the use of thought experiments. Is this a problem or harmless intellectual fun? In the past philosophers had much to say on the matter of gloom, doom or bloom; now indeed we must follow the science and accept whatever is offered us however baffling to common sense. The covidology appears to have been swallowed holus bolus by the Professor which is not remarkable if you live in a technocracy and breathe that air. (con spirare again: conspire )
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