BOOKBUSTER REVIEW – Disconsolate Dreamers: On Pessimism and Utopia
Published by Zer0 Books, rrp £9.99
REVIEW BY TIM BARTON
‘Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will’, said Romain Rolland, sadly remembered primarily for being a Stalinist. He used the phrase in a 1919 essay, which was read by the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, who credits Rolland with coining it, but who is famously remembered as its author.
John Hume, director of the Michigan Economic Center, said that ‘research shows pessimists see the world more accurately, but optimists get more good things done!’
And Hastings own poetess, the inestimable Salena Godden, insists that Pessimism is for Lightweights.
Thus, Rachid M’Rabty’s latest book, subtitled ‘On Pessimism and Utopia’, faces an uphill struggle against the zeitgeist! There is a hint of where he is coming from in Hume’s comment that ‘pessimists see the world more accurately’. Another, rather more explicit, counterweight to the view that optimists have it right comes from Barbara Ehrenreich, whose books critique America’s ‘just say yes’ culture. Her book Smile or Die is on the topic of ‘how positive thinking fooled America’.
COMFORTABLE NESTING BEHAVIOUR, OR EGO MASSAGING
Rachid spends a whole chapter on the rather depressing extreme pessimism of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Rachid concludes that ‘the value of pessimism as a critical device is found in the consciousness-raising assertion that perhaps there is no exit’ from the dilemmas of our reality to be found within the context of the current world-system, nor relief to be found in abandoning ‘the self or the world’ – in Schopenhauer’s terms, that would include suicide. It’s no wonder, if the argument is left there, that optimists frown upon those less gung-ho positive about things. Ironically, that includes dumping realists, as they, too, are a bit depressing.
Rachid, though, takes a next step, suggesting that, therefore, ‘a new imaginative conception must be thought of’. His definition of pessimism allows a dead end so bleak that a hopeful revolt, toward a ‘utopia’, is necessitated. Thus, the only true hope lies in demolishing the capitalist positivist world system entirely. It is argued that ‘optimism’ blinkers many people into believing piecemeal reforms and ‘I’m alright, Jack’ little islets of personal security, within the system, are sufficient, or if not, are at least a stepping stone to a rosy future. When John Hume noted that ‘pessimists see the world more accurately’, Rachid would agree, ‘absolutely so, yes’. But when he says ‘optimists get more good things done’, he would suggest that, in the short term, for a few individuals, no doubt that can be true, but to really address the global crises facing us today requires more than a wee bit of psychologically comfortable nesting behaviour, or ego massaging.
In that context, he quotes science-fiction author China Miéville who, seeing us ‘at the precipice of ecological collapse and societal catastrophe’, argues that ‘an alternative world, a changed world, a better world’ is a requirement. This is a disconsolate dream in two senses: it derives from that pessimism of the intellect, and is undone by a general positivist optimism that a utopian ‘omelette’ can be achieved without breaking eggs. Only, therefore, a pessimistic existential crisis can force a road to a real alternative society; only breaking eggs will offer any hope at all.
DRIVE YOUR INTELLECT AGAINST THE BRICK WALL
By these lights, ‘pessimism’ dovetails with ‘realism’, and offers a real glimmer of hope. Thus, ultimately, I guess it sounds quite akin to Rolland and Gramsci’s ‘pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will’. But, no. It requires acknowledging that our present predicament can offer no future at all but one defined by mitigation choices. The old order MUST die, IS dying. The only choices now dictate if we become extinct, or find a way to breach the catastrophe with as many survivors as possible. The failure to find the stomach for this amongst those seeking a liveable utopian future, hands the field to both the green-washing ‘business-as-usual’ brigade – a terminal disaster – and/or the alt-right radicals, and/or far-left accelerationists, which, as the 1930s and 40s show us, is the road to hell. Stalinism here, Nazism there, do-nothing but fiddle ‘optimistically’ within the system. These are not choices at all.
Thus, instead, yes, embrace pessimism. It is not for lightweights, far from it. Instead of an optimistic cop-out, drive your intellect against the intellectual and material brick wall that lies ahead. Therein lies the hope for a new utopian vision, past our all-embracing world-system. Optimists cannot see the woods for the trees, and those of us who can, well, we can see that only a forest fire can grant any future at all. For my money, it would look like a ‘left-green anarchism’, with communities living sustainably within ecological biomes. Only this can work, and there is no way to achieve it with the current combination of population, ecological degradation, and quasi-religious capitalistic fervour. No wonder people baulk at ‘pessimist’/’realism’!
Happy New Year!
Disconsolate Dreamers: On Pessimism and Utopia is available from Bookbuster, 39 Queens Road, Hastings TN34 1RE
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