Many people who would describe themselves as "not religious" appear to have an optimistic view that the world generally turns out OK. This view has possibly been influenced by seeing too many movies or reading too many books with shiny happy endings, but the optimism isn't founded on anything more solid that a vague idea that things just turn out that way.
Some of the most visible examples of this for me have been brief updates that people write online. I see people I know writing that they are currently going through a bad time, but that there is hope. Not hope in anything in particular. Just hope! These individuals sometimes quote the kind of happy mantras you might find in a birthday card or on a car bumper sticker, as if these small and cheap products are enough evidence to conclude that life can, and should, be nice all of the time. Strangely, the people who share these ideas about how nice life should always be are among the most frequent to complain that thing's are going badly.
All of this self-enforced happiness about life has recently reminded me of something else in the world- Economics. The way that the world has currently decided Economics works seems to echo some of this same unfounded optimism that I frequently see.
A national economy is considered to be doing well in the present if it is being more successful than it was in the recent past. Economics is working if it is always getting better. If a nation spends some time not doing so well, experts announce that something must be wrong. If it goes wrong for long enough, it's called a recession. In a vicious circle, when governments warn the public about a potential recession, the natural reaction of the public makes it more likely that the recession will happen.
The philosophy of Economics is apparently that things must always be improving. It should always get better. We should always move forward. Anything less is considered practically unnatural- even staying the same would be considered a negative state.
But it seems obvious in a world of finite resources that this presents an impossible goal. There is some wisdom in the world that describes a circle of life, or that you live through seasons, or that there is a general balance for all beings. The natural world, if studied, shows us cycles as large as birth and death, and as small as breathing in and out.
Human greed has tried to break away from our natural rhythm. In Economics, we have worked to gain money, and then worked harder to keep all of it. In daily life, we have sought only happiness and comfort, and have become surprised when sorrow and work force themselves upon us.
Forced is an accurate description. No matter how much we fight it, living things will aways experience change. Money will require tax. Relationships will require sacrifice.
So I do not consider it healthy to think that I will be able to achieve uninterrupted happiness. Neither do I consider it sensible for the world to think that a rich nation will always stay that way.
Image source: http://meanderingsandreflections.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html
