p. 373 | WHAT IS PESSIMISM? by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 24, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 24.

WHAT IS PESSIMISM?

By Editor

BISHOP POTTER, of New York, has been severely criticised by almost everybody for telling a little wholesome truth in his address on the occasion of the centennial celebration. It is stated that the leading idea of his speech was “that there is already a deteriorating process in almost all departments of official and private life, and that the tone of public and private morals is distinctly lower than it was in the days of Washington and his immediate successors.” And this has been roundly denounced as pessimism by those who believe that the church and the world should be run as mutual admiration societies.

For the most part the secular and religious press have united in denying the bishop’s conclusions, and in insisting that instead of growing worse, the world, and especially this country, is steadily improving in morals. True, they offer no decided proof to this effect, but inasmuch as the people are pleased to believe thus, it requires no proof to satisfy them. However, it would probably not be a difficult task to show that the bishop spoke only the unvarnished truth; and the scenes witnessed in connection with the centennial ball in New York go very far to prove what he said. A century ago such a disgraceful orgy would have been impossible among the same class of people that engaged in it on this occasion. Moreover, the facts which the bishop states are in perfect keeping with the declarations of Scripture: “Evil men and seducers,” says the apostle, “shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” And our Lord himself, referring to his second coming, plainly implied that true faith would be well-nigh extinct in the last days. He said: “Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth?” The form of the question and the connection in which it occurred, admit only of a negative answer.

But while the religious press is almost a unit in denying the bishop’s conclusions, that the world is growing worse, one important paper, at least, has had the courage to speak against the custom of crying down every warning as pessimism. This paper is the Baptist Examiner from New York, and we cannot do better than to reproduce for our readers the following article from its issue of May 30:—

THE CRY OF “PESSIMISM.”

“The old proverb that tells us to ‘give a dog a bad name and then kill him’ has many modern applications. One of the commonest is the raising of the cry of ‘pessimism’ whenever words of timely and manly rebuke of existing evils are spoken. If the greatness of the occasion and the character of the speaker are such as to attract much attention to the rebuke, this is felt to be one of the most effective means of dulling its edge. Nobody need have been surprised, therefore, when Bishop Potter spoke words that seemed to many of his fellow-citizens to be a temperate, manly, and much-needed rebuke of the spirit of office-seeking and office-mongering that is rife among us, that he should be at once assailed from many quarters as a pessimist. If the people can only be persuaded that there is something the matter with the bishop’s liver, that he looks at the world through jaundiced eyes or blue spectacles, less weight will attach to what he has spoken.

“We are not specially concerned to defend Bishop Potter or his address. Both are fully able to answer for themselves; and as to the address, the longer and the more widely it is read the more highly its merits are likely to be appreciated. What we wish just now to do is to call attention to the spurious notion of optimism and pessimism that is diligently propagated by the glib denouncers of the bishop.

“It is a false optimism that takes rose-colored views of everything, that resolutely shuts its eyes to the existence of evils, and insists that everything is good and lovely, and better than it ever was in the history of the world. This is the easiest sort of gush, the cheapest and the most dangerous philosophy of living. We believe as firmly as any living man that, on the whole, the world is growing better instead of worse. . . . But this does not blind our eyes to the fact that there is sometimes a retrograde movement in society, a backward eddy in the onward moving current. We cannot fail to see that there are evils calling for resistance, for reform, for eradication; and the first condition for advance is that these evils be recognized and strenuously fought. It is vain to cry, ‘Peace, peace; when there is no peace;’ to insist that things are better than they really are; to denounce those who would have us take a calm and intelligent survey of the facts as a preliminary to well-directed action. That is not optimism which acts thus, it is simple foolishness.

“The only optimism worthy of the name, because the only kind that is intelligent, is that which unites the hopeful spirit concerning the future with clear-eyed vision of the present; that shirks no difficulty merely because it is unpleasant to face the facts; that refuses to imitate the ostrich and try to abolish facts by refusing to see them. The optimism that will not see evils existing is half afraid that if it ceases to ignore distasteful facts it will cease to be optimistic. And when the facts are by some social convulsion forced upon its attention, this form of optimism often relapses into the most hopeless form of pessimism. It was those that were most certain that the Chicago anarchists meant nothing serious who were most panicky after the Haymarket riot, and feared that the bottom was about to drop out of society. It was those that were most certain no civil war could grow out of the slavery agitation who were paralyzed with fear when the first guns were fired.”