Fifty Optimists

Building the right woodpile

Yesterday the Diehard Optimist turned five months’ old and published its 50th essay: this is to thank you for reading.

Not including an introduction, first-month review and this post, we’ve averaged ten a month, a bit beyond our target of “at least two essays per week.” We don’t want to overwhelm you or duplicate what’s been well said elsewhere. Mostly we want to avoid being one of those that, in Lincoln’s phrase, “chops in the wrong woodpile.”

Our essays have covered Canada and its history (9); Russia’s forever wars (9); and foreign interference in our recent election (10). We’ve tackled Trump (4), Europe (2), the Kananaskis G8 (2), and the 60^th anniversary of George Grant’s Lament for a Nation (5) — formative for me — including looks at Canada’s sources and purposes.

Beyond that, we’ve assessed NATO’s last summit; Israeli and US attacks on Iran; elections in Greenland and Romania (2); China and trade (2); and Carney, Québec’s comeback, and the old philosophical chestnut of balancing freedom and law, now complicated by attacks on democracy from so many quarters (3).

If I have a regret, it is not yet having delved into the plight of Afghanistan – betrayed by the whole world in 2020-21 and plunged back into the void of arbitrary violence, comprehensive repression, soul-crushing poverty and renewed terrorism.

There have been no grounds for optimism lately in Islamabad, Kabul or Kandahar. But I will soon remedy our deficiency: Afghans deserve so much more.

Feedback from readers has been overwhelmingly encouraging – so thanks again. While otherwise complimenting the Optimist, one friend described our posts as ‘sometimes-ranty.’ We will endeavour to keep the tone civil, while staying passionate about issues that matter so much to us all.

Our reach will continue to grow as we refine our focus.

In a world where levels of ambition, especially for politics, have been under steady downward revision, we aim to examine topics that, if handled properly, could see our current culture of resignation and decline replaced by reinvigoration and renewal.

The Diehard Optimist is about raising levels of political ambition. Our first fifty posts have argued this can be done by countering foreign interference; defeating and deterring totalitarian aggression; and getting our own domestic economic, political and strategic kitchens back into good working order.

The scope for such moves depends, in part, on what America is becoming. It will be influenced by Russia and China — is change in the offing? — as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria, where terrorism’s next generation is training.

An engrossing August and autumn lie ahead.

Ultimately, the future still depends on us – active and concerned citizens of functioning democracies, who can make a difference together.

Thanks again for reading The Diehard Optimist.