The Futility of Hip Pessimism

Hating things is easy. There are many things to hate and most of them are well worth it. Finding pleasure can take more effort, more ingenuity. People love to complain--about work, the city they live in, the cultural void, the failed schools, the collapse of the earth, political differences, the lists go on. Sometimes whining becomes hip. Haters are valued as astute, intelligent, and credible. Lovers get ignored. Progressive hip pessimism often leaves a void where pretensions of hope become persuasive and good ideas couched in whining get ignored. When lefties take too seriously Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci's notion of pessimism of the intellect-optimism of the will, they fail to look for the irresistible, the pleasurable, the desirable. Rather, they intelligently criticize almost everything and turn themselves into groaning messiahs martyring themselves to movements that they don't believe could win.