American Optimism is the new name for my overall world view. It represents a hope for peace and knowledge that does not ignore the selfish needs each of us is undeniably born with. Often, those who believe the world can be totally rid of hunger, war, and repression are labeled dreamers. However, the idea that a home, be it a house or a country, can be perfectly insulated and protected from the “real” world seems to me to be just as delusional. World Peace and The War on Terror occupy the same null space of hopeless hopes. In the argument over gun rights, typically one believes that either banning guns or making them readily available will result in far safer world, with little credit given to the argument that neither creates an ideal safety. The same for nation-building; those who say the government has no place in our lives in America think that it will somehow be able to successfully re-engineer a country like Iraq.

Positive change only comes from a personal politics of kindness, curiosity, and charity. Even those most dangerous to our society can be neutralized if we listen to and help them in a timely way. Helping people is not only a way to make a difference, it is the only way to change the world. Without an evolution of the individual, all else is a hopeless fantasy.