A Manifesto for Ragged Optimism

Working out what happens to old optimists

Optimism is radical.

If we’re going to change the world, the first thing we have to be able to do is imagine a better world. Hope lets that imagining happen. And optimism is the foundation of hope - we can only hope if we have optimism. Hope is the state, being optimistic is the act. We choose to be optimistic.

Our society is an act of collective imagining. We are the living end of the adventures of those who imagined before us, and we follow their adventures by imagining our own endings and the starts of new adventures. Nothing is static. Society only exists through a constant reimagining.

Optimism is a radical act. A radical optimist is a person who supports the imagining of a different society. To be a radical optimist is to believe in imagining as a constant series of conscious acts. Radical optimism is a partner to activism - it is the thing that some people have that lets them move from protesting against the existing world to making a new one.

Ragged optimism is something else.

Ragged optimists carry their optimism differently.

Ragged optimists buy seeds when they don’t have a garden. Ragged optimists book the rehearsal room before they’ve written the play. Ragged optimists sharpen their pencils every morning. Ragged optimists carry binoculars in their bags. Ragged optimists buy next year’s diary in June. Ragged optimists have an overnight bag packed, just in case. Ragged optimists have lists of possible band-names ready. Ragged optimists have more books on the ‘to be read’ stack than they can read in a year but don’t worry about it. Ragged optimists are waiting for the rainbow on a rainy day.

Ragged optimists chose optimism a long time ago, and it’s no longer a conscious act. Ragged optimists hold their optimism as a faith, not as a weapon. Ragged optimists see optimism not as activism, but as a vocation. Ragged optimists wrestle their angels every day, and the angels are overcome.

Footnote:

I’ve been interested in optimism as a tool for a long time, after realising more than ten years ago that it is the grain in much of my work. I have thought of optimism as a partner to activism many times - I had Keith Brymer Jones make me a pair of mugs that say ‘Optimist’ and ‘Activist’ some time ago. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of a looser, more ragged optimism for some time, and this is an attempt to work it out.

End-note:

"Radical Optimism is the third studio album by English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa, released on 3 May 2024."

"The concept of the term "radical optimism", originally coined by the anthropology collective Allegra Lab [in 2020]..." [On why Dua Lipa chose the name Radical Optimism]

"Good stories and examples of great things happening on your high street please - use #radicaloptimist hashtag today." Dan Thompson, July 2013.