The Jewish Optimist

In the last few decades the United States has tried to instill democracy in Iraq and in Afghanistan.  The author Fintan O’Toole examined these attempts in the New York Review of Books (Oct. 7, 2021).  Mr. O’Toole wrote that the question was not whether the Iraqis and Afghans were fit for democracy.  The question was whether we were fit to teach it.  Did we have the values to teach?

O’Toole wrote:

     Those values include the accountability of the people in power, the consistent and universal application of human rights, a clear understanding of what policies are trying to achieve, the prevention of corrupt financial influence over political decisions, and the fundamental truthfulness of public utterances.  In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the American republic was fighting, and often losing, a domestic battle to uphold those values for its own citizens.

Which brings me to my optimistic outlook:  What is the difference between a Jewish optimist and a Jewish pessimist?  The pessimist says, “It can’t possibly get any worse than this.”

“The optimist replies, “Oh, yes it can.”  

I’m very optimistic.