Humanity has been optimistic for ten thousand years, not despite a suspicion that the world may be going to hell, but to the contrary based ona confidence that such an ending is entirely avoidable. Optimism does not depend on geography, on social status or on which generation you happen to be born into. Rich people are optimistic, but so are poor people. Optimists live in the cold, but also in the tropics.
I landed smack dab on the equator, in Macapá at the mouth of the Amazon. The town has built a soccer field and positioned the center circle exactly on the 0 latitude. Every match is one between north and south. The stadium is called Zerao, Portuguese for big zero, and on the road leading up to it an obelisk rises up with a round opening at the top, the circle zero. Landing there reminded me of a story that’s well-known among other aviators who have also once landed in Macapá. It’s about a young pilot who went for an after-dinner walk. On the riverbank he met a Brazilian woman, an encounter so cordial that the next morning he decided he was head over heels about her.
He stayed in town for a week and convinced himself that all his dreams had come true, and that she was now his own Brazilian young goddess. He was smitten, and when she asked if he had any money she could borrow, to help her through college, he didn't hesitate. He flew back home, transferred the amount, and never heard from her again. The pilot had been taken to the cleaners.
Optimism was born together with the invention of the knife, and therefore has all that time been aware of its ambivalence. The knife can help and hurt. Managing the difference requires solid agreements, laws, and those who do not abide bear the consequences. The young Brazilian goddess was not only an optimist, she was also an experienced realist. She laid her head down every night on the center of the globe where the truth, like the soccer ball, could roll one way or the other. Her assessment was that she could pull off her trick, as old as mankind, with impunity. She was proven right.
Copyright © 2022—2024 Willem Meiners - All Rights Reserved. // Developed by AvH Graphics
History is written by optimists & so is the future