By Dr. Boshra EL-Guindy
Special to GUIDON

I often watch with amusement how two of my favorite colleagues routinely engage in an argument. Their animated debates are never about negativity or bickering, but about hope that engaging in such healthy discussions will ultimately lead to solutions of problems. It is about the joy they find in presenting their different views that trigger thoughtfulness and creativity.

This is American optimism at its best; a trait that looms large in the nation’s history and imagination. This is what brings people together and even solidifies friendship and conciliation.

Optimism is part and parcel of the American culture. It is in the very fabric of the American psyche. Optimism is what always drives Americans to believe that there are better days ahead.  

In the political arena, American optimism is displayed like nowhere else.  No other nation carries this optimism in all political dialogues and presidential and congressional elections. Healthy debates are a constant feature of American politics and American elections where candidates are given ample opportunities to present their political platforms and values so that people know who they really are.  It is this kind of futuristic optimism that has shaped the American political landscape and American life throughout history. These debates also give candidates the political ground to present their ideas and programs for a better and positive change and future.

Optimism is what drives Americans to go to war sometimes because of the ‘good’ that most people believe that wars are likely to bring. Despite the calamities that wars often create, wars are simply the outcome of the American inherent optimistic view that most Americans hold that they cannot stand helpless in the face of oppression or injustice.  They have to do something to bring something good to the world. It is this optimistic willingness and determination ‘to do good’ that drives America as a nation and as individuals.

Eleven years after the 9/11 attacks, while most Americans commemorate that time as tragedy, they also celebrate the heroism of ‘ordinary everyday people’; the firefighters, the police, ordinary passers by, some of whom sacrificed their lives to help and save others. While Americans continue to mourn the loss of lives and heal from the agony that followed, they also honor the sacrifices of those ordinary people. American optimism is derived from the dedication and selflessness of everyday people.  

Every American knows that the nation is facing big problems that require hard work, tough decisions and many sacrifices. However, Americans deal with these problems not with the despair or fatalism that other nations approach their problems, but with hope and the strong belief that things might be bad now, but they will certainly get better. They believe they have gone through these crises before, but prevailed and came back stronger than ever. It is this heroic optimism that has made this nation the greatest nation on earth and it is the source of its strength.

(Editor’s note: EL-Guindy is the Culture and Foreign Language adviser at the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence.)