Overcoming Optimism (and Moving toward Hope)

Mary V. Wrenn

Journal of Economic Issues, 2023, vol. 57, issue 2, 376-388

Abstract: U.S. optimism, the belief in anyone’s ability to overcome any obstacle, any oppression, is part of the country’s social DNA. U.S.-Americans are heavily socialized and profoundly, culturally attached to ideas of reinvention and redemption, of hard work and domination of the self. As the ideological operant of capitalism over the past fifty years, neoliberalism further elevates and venerates the mythology of the individual and their individual agency while further deepening the capitalist mythology of the market as an esoteric and inevitable force of nature. Those cultural institutions which interactively reinforce these supporting mythologies of neoliberalism use optimism as an emotional lever to instill and enforce neoliberal self-governance. Building upon the extant socialization of optimism, neoliberal self-governance requires the individual to engage in the self-management of their emotions and emotional reactions, wherein success is always on the horizon and failure always the fault of the individual.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2023.2188869

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