Remarks presented to York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies Graduating Class of 2023

The human condition is…not good. We’re in the polycrisis, a widening gyre of climate emergency, inequality, infrastructure neglect, rising authoritarianism and zoonotic plagues. But that’s not the bad part. Stuff breaks. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is not up for debate. Things fall apart. Assuming nothing will break doesn’t make you an optimist — it makes you a danger to yourself and others. “Nothing will go wrong” is how we get “let’s not put any lifeboats on the Titanic.” Let me say, “to hell with optimism and pessimism.” Optimism and pessimism are just fatalism in respectable suits. Optimism is the belief that things will get better, no matter what we do. Pessimism is the belief that things will get worse, no matter what we do. Both deny human agency, that we can intervene to change things.”