Office Hours: Are you generally more or less optimistic about the future?

Your personal assessment

Friends,

With the midterm elections (including Georgia’s nail-biting runoff) now behind us, Congress winding down, the end of 2022 in sight, (not to mention it being Pearl Harbor Day), I thought it a good moment to reflect more broadly on where we’re headed.

For most of my life I’ve believed in social progress. I’ve assumed that America (in fits and starts) is moving toward becoming a fairer society, providing most people with better lives. I’ve agreed with the late Martin Luther King Jr.’s idea that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

I still do. But I have to admit that the last few years have tested my optimism about the future, and called into question my assumption of social progress.

How the hell can a former president who says we may need to “terminate” the Constitution because he wasn’t re-elected still be supported by 30 to 40 percent of the people? Why does the richest nation in the history of the world have such poverty and homelessness? Why do we tolerate so many guns, so much violence, so much hate?

But then again, I see so much good around me — so many people eager to lend a hand, so much generosity among those who have so little, so much bravery and sacrifice during the pandemic and beyond.

Hence, this week’s Office Hours question: When you look ahead are you generally upbeat or downbeat, and why?

Please share your views. I’ll chime in with mine.

You might begin by taking our poll.