"We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect"
About this Quote
Pessimism, Galbraith suggests, is the cocktail-party credential of the thinking class: a small, sharp badge that signals you see through the hype. The line works because it flatters and indicts at the same time. It begins with a cozy fiction of consensus ("We all agree"), then smuggles in a social judgment: gloom isn’t just a mood, it’s a status symbol. If optimism is for salesmen and politicians, pessimism is for people who fancy themselves too intelligent to be duped.
Galbraith knew this posture intimately. As an economist who spent his career puncturing the self-confidence of markets and institutions, he understood how easy it is to convert skepticism into identity. Postwar technocracy, Cold War anxiety, and the recurring disappointment of economic forecasting all made cynicism feel like realism. In that milieu, pessimism isn’t merely an assessment of evidence; it’s a way to avoid being embarrassed by hope.
The subtext is a warning: the association between bleak predictions and intellectual rigor is socially constructed, not logically necessary. A grim outlook can be a hedge against accountability. If you predict failure, you’re rarely blamed when failure arrives, and you can look prescient when it does. Optimists, by contrast, have skin in the game.
Galbraith’s slyness is that he doesn’t exempt himself. By calling this agreement out loud, he exposes pessimism’s prestige economy: a culture where the smartest-sounding person in the room is often the one least willing to imagine a workable future.
Galbraith knew this posture intimately. As an economist who spent his career puncturing the self-confidence of markets and institutions, he understood how easy it is to convert skepticism into identity. Postwar technocracy, Cold War anxiety, and the recurring disappointment of economic forecasting all made cynicism feel like realism. In that milieu, pessimism isn’t merely an assessment of evidence; it’s a way to avoid being embarrassed by hope.
The subtext is a warning: the association between bleak predictions and intellectual rigor is socially constructed, not logically necessary. A grim outlook can be a hedge against accountability. If you predict failure, you’re rarely blamed when failure arrives, and you can look prescient when it does. Optimists, by contrast, have skin in the game.
Galbraith’s slyness is that he doesn’t exempt himself. By calling this agreement out loud, he exposes pessimism’s prestige economy: a culture where the smartest-sounding person in the room is often the one least willing to imagine a workable future.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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