Is Optimism "Dated?"

ANDREW WEIL was being interviewed for a New York Times article by a woman in her mid-thirties, a graduate of Harvard and the daughter of two Harvard psychiatrists. In preparing for the interview, she read one of Weil's books, The Natural Mind.

After reading it, she told Weil it seemed "dated." Of course he asked, "What do you mean?" She said the book seemed like the product of another time. He asked what she meant by that, and she said, "Well, it is so optimistic." She said people from her generation would find that kind of optimism completely foreign.

This trend is exactly why I created CrushPessimism.com. If you've ever wondered how this trend came about, read Put an End to Cynicism and Scorn.