Summary
Cruel optimism is an attachment to something that gets in the way of the very thing you hoped it would bring. The term is Lauren Berlant’s, a US scholar of English whose 2011 book ‘Cruel Optimism’ opens: “A relation of cruel optimism exists when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing.” The object might be a love affair, a habit, a political project or a picture of the good life.
Berlant’s main case is that picture: the post-war promise of upward mobility, job security and lasting intimacy, which people cling to as it frays. Losing it can seem worse than being worn down by it.
Rationale
Part 1 explains why deep dispositions persist by habit and surroundings. Berlant adds desire: we stay with a way of life because our hopes live there. A question for our own hopes too.