Food for Thought: Is there a case for more pessimism?

This Food for Thought is not meant to be negative or dark, it is as always to challenge some of our thinking and behaviors, as we prepare our students for the future. Yesterday at the Grade 12 Graduation I centered my closing remark around the opportunities that COVID 19 will present for the Class of 2020 and that they should be optimistic about the future and become involved in making a better world.

"The last four months have changed our world and the pathway that you, the Class of 2020, will walk. COVID 19 has raised many questions about our future as a species, the way we live our lives, and the future we will face. No-one here knows how it will end up. I believe it is important that when you, the Class of 2020, reflect upon these days it is not only with sadness for the things that you have missed; gratitude for the way you have been kept safe, happiness at not having to take the IB Diploma examinations, but also optimism for the opportunities that will now be presented to you to make this a better world."

But was I right? Should I have talked about a more cautious approach, balancing optimism with the need for pessimism? In these two videos, there is much Food for Thought as we prepare students of all ages for their future.

This first video explains, "Why Good Societies are Pessimistic." “It might be normal to imagine that a good society would be one in which a majority of people held optimistic views about themselves, their fellow citizens, and their prospects for their collective futures.

But, in fact, quite the opposite appears to be true: deep pessimism seems a key ingredient for the maintenance of any good society…”

The second video is given by "Yale World Fellow Alexander Evans OBE is a British diplomat, academic and expert on Pakistan in 2011. He is a counselor in the British diplomatic service and a visiting senior research fellow at King's College London. He is currently working in Washington DC as a senior advisor to Ambassador Marc Grossman, the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (and formerly to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke until his death in December 2010). He has previously served as a British diplomat in Pakistan and India and as a member of the U.K.'s policy planning staff. Before joining the Foreign Office Alexander was research director at Policy Exchange and director of studies at the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation, both London think-tanks. He has contributed to books and periodicals including Foreign Affairs and from 2006-2010 held a fellowship at Nuffield College, Oxford. "