Hello,

Allow me to begin with several assertions which in the course of my life have influenced me:

"It's too late for pessimism."

"Nostalgia isn't what it used to be."

"He who does nothing spoils nothing." / Czech proverb

And now to the real topic: critical optimism; unusual connections; apparently not belonging together. Criticism, especially in the Czech Republic, is automatically perceived as something negative and the critical person as someone who needed to express merely negative energy. When you take up a critical position, you must profess that you are even harder on yourself. So for example you say: "I am not critical only of others, but also of myself." I'm always tempted to reverse this statement: "I am not critical only of myself (this is the automatic assumption), but I am just as critical of others."

But to get to the heart of the matter: What can optimism do for the 21st century?

Again I have an urge to reverse the question. What can it not do? I think that it can do absolutely everything. Bring about world peace, eradicate poverty and hunger... add anything of consequence that you can think of. A personal note: I'm an architect. Without optimism it is impossible to do architecture. If you don't believe that things can (should, will) improve, it's pointless to even try anything. If you don't know how to critically assess the things that people did before you, you will have no hope of following them up meaningfully. So as soon as you decide to study architecture and create something, there will be no approach left to you besides "critical optimism".

Moreover, human life is too short to fill it with pessimism. The idea that something could turn out worse than it really will has never caused any good for anyone. So in conclusion, critical optimism does not seem to me like something out of the ordinary, but in fact as the only possible approach. I can't even think of any other.

I have also added some words which I saw on the ground in the Paris metro every day for half a year on my way to work. They have been deeply engraved in my memory.

("The greatest danger that threatens us is passivity" – quote from the Paris metro)