Optimism, on the other hand, is a toxin to be avoided. Optimism is a subgenre of fatalism, the belief that things will get better no matter what we do. It’s just the obverse of pessimism. Both are ways of denying human agency. To be an optimist is to be a passenger of history, along for the ride, with no hope of changing its course.

I very much disagree with this definition of optimism. Optimism is a belief that things will get better because most people will actually work for that. Basically, it’s faith (not necessarily in a higher power), which is oddly missing from the happiness, optimism, hope trilogy here.

In fact, I think he entirely swaps the definition of hope and optimism. I am not at all optimistic (in that I don’t believe people will rise up, or that the people with power will make things truly better) but I have hope (unfounded, not driven by people action) that I am wrong.