Optimism or Pessimism?

I've had several posts rattling around in my head for quite some time, but I haven't really gotten around to writing any of them out. They are all kind of interconnected, dealing with politics, the economy, fuel prices, sustainability, the millenials' work ethic, the Future, etc, etc, etc.

What I can't decide is whether I should be optimistic or pessimistic about the future. I would say that my natural tendency is toward pessimism, although I have made gains in the optimism category in recent years. My pessimism, if I may defend it a bit, is not of the "everything is horrible and that's the end of the story" variety. It is, perhaps, more the analytical scientific, "well, the glass is half full or empty and that's just semantics but I see that that man over there has a straw with which he probably intends to drink some of the water, and that cloud coming doesn't look near large enough to replace it...in fact in may even rain outside the glass rather than in, but it could rain and the straw might be defective so maybe the situation isn't really that bad, while on the other hand..." I'm sure you get the picture.

Touching briefly on the political scene, none of the current presidential candidates exactly give me hope for the future. Rather sickening, the lot of them. I dare say it may not be their fault...it may have more to do with the fact that the Congress disgusts me. Unfortunately, all the remaining candidates are members of that Congress, so that doesn't bode well. I think I may be in favor of kicking out all current Congress-people and replacing them. They had their chance, let some other people give it a try. (Of course the Farm Bill debacle has nothing to do with that attitude...of course not...but that's an entire blog in and of itself...yes, I said blog, I meant blog. Not blog post, blog.)

Gas prices, of course, are the hot topic of the moment. At least the ethanol love-fest seems to be mostly over. Or perhaps the first sickening puppy love-fest. I just think that it is ridiculous to tout corn-based ethanol as the savior of our energy future when corn is almost exclusively grown using machinery that runs on oil-derived fuel and using fertilizer and chemical inputs that are largely derived from processes surrounding oil. Does anyone else see how ridiculous this is?

Leaving out the fuel-futures of the gas prices, what is more concerning in some ways is the havoc that the high gas prices are and will continue to have on the U.S. economy. In my opinion, the only real solution for the U.S. is to reduce the rampant over-consumption of goods. However, much of the U.S. economy as it currently exists is based entirely upon that very over-consumption. I don't see any way that this won't end badly.

At the same time, I'm young, I'm planning to get married, and I have the same hopes and dreams for a nice home and family that most young people have. I want to be blissfully ignorant of the fact that something, anything could possible get in the way of that dream. I want to be one of those people that can say, "well, gas prices are high now, and food prices are getting higher, and the housing market is in really bad shape, but in a few years everything will turn around and life will go on just as we expect it to." I'm not so sure that's true. I think we may have to expect some significant changes to occur, even when we return to some point of equilibrium.

Which brings me to wonder about the Millenials' work ethic. We have all pretty much been raised to believe that we can do anything we want to, and better yet, that we deserve everything that we have been given or that has been within (and sometimes even beyond) or reasonable reach to obtain. I have to wonder what our response would/will be when faced with genuine hardship. Will we buck up and make sacrifices and work together using our brilliance and creativity to do the best we can for our community, country, and world? Or will we show ourselves to be the spoiled, self-centered brats as some of our elders are already characterizing us? This is my real dilemma...I don't know if I should be optimistic or pessimistic about my own generation. I think that I myself would live up to my higher expectations. I'm not afraid of hard work, and I have the knowledge and ingenuity to figure out how to live under conditions vastly different that to which I have become accustomed. I think I could even be content in such a situation. Unfortunately, I have a suspicion that many others from my generation would not bear up nearly so well. But such things will just never happen, will they? So why should I even consider it?