That's because public transit everywhere in the world is one of the more popular targets for complaint, vitriol and even fist-shaking rage.
However, radical optimists (as I freely admit I am) seek out optimism in the hardest places - and where better than the subways of New York?
A campaign instigated by Manhattan designer Reed Seifer to distribute 14 million Metrocards emblazoned with the word "Optimism" to New York commuters kicked off in November last year under the MTA's Arts in Transit program.
He's been an optimism promoter since the early 80s after an experience as a young boy with his father and a homeless man. He wrote a thesis on optimism and then started selling buttons. Now he's reached exponential scale. A cool side-story by the way--look it up.
The naysayers were quickly vocal - "I am optimistic that the MTA is mismanaged and the fares will continue to go up while service goes down", and the sarcastic sucker-punch: "I feel better already."
It'll be interesting to see what effect the campaign has. Is simply putting a positive word out there into the atmosphere enough to cause social change?
I'm a great believer in the power of (correct and appropriate) language to change the entire conversation. I believe it will and does--if only for one!
I've called myself a "Radical Optimist" - not an everyday garden variety, but a committed evangelist. Reed Seifer is therefore a Radical Optimist, taking the notion beyond the "glass is half full" cliché. As I firmly believe that, by definition, a glass cannot be "half-empty"--that's like being "half honest" or "half pregnant"--you either are or your are not--one of these more easily defined, black & white issues for me. Everything is at some progression of "fullness"--you're either "full" or some portion there-of. The same DOES NOT apply for empty (ness).
Radical Optimism is not about seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses; it's about taking notice of the roses that are out there - and getting out there to plant some more.
Negativity and pessimism are easy—that’s why everyone goes there so readily. As the MTA campaign reminds us, traveling through life with some optimism in our back pocket is a great idea for us and for those around us.
