Don’t Look on the Bright Side

LONDON, England — “Britain has been hit worst by the recession,” asserted my father at the dining table. Forks fell from mouths and fists emphatically banged on the table as the rest of my family rushed to violently agree. My brother vigorously traced the entire world crisis back to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s actions, while my mother gazed fretfully around the table and expressed her concern for “you kids.” Each family member offered a doomsday prediction that aimed to top the last, and collectively denied the International Monetary Fund’s statement that Britain is the best placed to counter the crisis.

Last week, while skies were tauntingly grey, my work colleagues ignored their sheltered office confines and persistently grumbled about the awful lack of summer. We collectively awarded Britain the title of worst climate in Europe, and this topic of conversation was deemed important enough to invade every exchange. Nevertheless, this week, when the heat wave finally struck, each sweat-stained commuter on the underground wore a pained expression while newspaper headlines lamented—never celebrated—the oppressive weather. Train passengers thought wistfully back to cooler days, and whined that their English bodies were not suited to such weather.

Britain is a notoriously negative nation. We were convinced we wouldn’t be granted the opportunity to host the Olympics in 2011, and when we were, we moaned about the cost. In contrast to the chipper optimism in the U.S., pessimism runs rampant throughout Britain.

For some reason, I find it a strangely refreshing attitude, and take great comfort in the shared grumbles of my compatriots. Recently, during a company presentation at work, I realized the reason for my seemingly illogical preference for complaints.

The Chairman of News International, James Murdoch, summarized recent newspaper figures in a speech for a company. Due to the current state of the industry, Mr Murdoch was naturally bound to deliver a depressing series facts. “There’s a lot of positive news too,” he encouraged, “but we’re going to focus on the negative, in order to improve.”

With this same rationale, I will continue to favor critical evaluations over positive ones, because to be consistently positive is to accept flaws as inevitable. The British may be a little extreme, but our constant disapproval means we never miss an opportunity to progress.


Olivia M. Goldhill ’11, a Crimson editorial writer, is a government concentrator in Kirkland House.