A note on Optimistic and Pesimistic Patriots

Importance of both point-of-view

Posted by Rohit Sharma on Feb 14, 2022

Seeing developments projects in India makes us happy and cheerful. This feeling is a complex blend of optimism and patriotism. Optimism is inherent to an individual, I think, determined by one's own experience. If you overcame challenges thrown at you by the system, you tend to be a little optimistic. Of course, here, the reward gotten after overcoming a challenge is crucial. If a person receives fair compensation, then the person is more likely to be optimistic, while unfairly treated people may turn to pessimism. Here, I am talking about the natural case. You can always train yourself to be critical and pessimistic. In a realistic sense, a mediocre engineer getting a job three years after school would be more satisfied than their modest farming counterpart. The latter would get a little reward from the system, i.e., more frustrated and pessimistic. Such trends can be seen in India as, on average, farming is becoming less profitable compared to other professions. Therefore, you may find more optimistic people in the present-day middle class and pessimistic people in agriculture and Labour.

The feeling of patriotism is taught from childhood. Therefore, labelling any section of society as unpatriotic would not be correct. The degree of patriotism is indeed different among individuals. A farmer or a tribal confined in a village would not be so sensitive to the concept of the nation as a jawan on the border. The mixture of optimistic ultra-patriots is more likely to overestimate the capabilities. They tend to push the tasks making rapid growth, but a quick saturation. On the other hand, the optimistic patriots have more realistic assessments. However, they would be slower. The pessimistic patriots are more likely to stay back and look for consolidation. This would be required to check the runaway growth, i.e. making it optimal. Overall, in this mixture, either extreme will break the development. Therefore, all sections of people are essential to co-exist and keep the engine running at the right pace.