Optimism, pessimism, dissatisfaction, hope

As we come back to these attitudes, again and again, this from theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether seems appropriate:

"If we are 'optimistic,' it suggests that change is inevitable and will happen in the 'natural' course of things, and so we need not make much effort ourselves. Someone else will take care of it. If we are 'pessimistic,' change is impossible, and therefore it is useless to try. In either case we have the luxury, as critical but comfortable elites in the United States, to question the present system without being responsible for it. What we need is neither optimism nor pessimism, in these terms, but committed love." - Rosemary Radford Ruether