Panglossian

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(pronounced pan-glos-ee-un or pan-glaws-ee-un or pang-glos-ee-un) adjective

Definition

marked by extreme optimism in any and all situations regardless of the level of difficulty or adversity; foolishly or naively optimistic. [From the character Dr. Pangloss in Voltaire's satire "Candide."]

Main Example

• Brazil is in a full-blown crisis, what with the daily death toll from Covid-19 now exceeding 4,000 and the cumulative body count over 320,000. The words of infectious disease physician Dr. Rosana Richtmann from Sao Paulo, who was recently interviewed on ABC, sum up the hopelessness that pervades the Latin American giant: "There are no beds, there is no oxygen, and there are no medicines." Public-health experts are unanimous in attributing the collapse of Brazil's healthcare system to their president, Jair Bolsonaro. The Brazilian leader's constant belittling of facemasks and social distancing, his criticism of lockdowns and his outright denial of science, plus such of his comments as "the coronavirus is just a little flu" (uttered during the early months of the pandemic) and "get back to work and stop whining" (when recently asked to respond to the mounting death rate) are a testament to Bolsonaro's attitude which has been utterly Panglossian since day one of the pandemic.

Workplace Examples

• During the early 1980s, I encountered several high-tech companies that came to grief because terms such as "marketing" and "product promotion" didn't exist in their vocabulary. Their business philosophy could best be characterized as "have product, will travel"--they suffered from the Panglossian view that if you have a fantastic new product, especially one that is bursting with sensational technology, sales will automatically hit the stratosphere.
• Unlike you guys, I do buy into Bill's optimism. I think the scenario he has just depicted is pretty realistic; it is not Pollyannaish or Panglossian.

Other Examples

• a year ago, just as the pandemic was beginning to take hold, an oil company executive saying: "What a turnabout in our industry! Less than two years ago, everyone at this conference was full of unbounded optimism, with Panglossian forecasts extending to the far end of the horizon. And now, it's nothing but doom and gloom."
• a fellow employee concluding his presentation by saying: "And now, to the new employees in the audience: Let me assure you that the optimistic sales and profit numbers I have just forecasted for year after next are not some pie in the sky--I am not a victim of some Panglossian thinking. We can do it and we will! Some six or seven years ago, our company was in similarly dire straits, but we were able to quickly recover and regain our leadership position in the industry."
• in one study, AIDS patients who were somewhat Panglossian about their prospects of recovery living longer; someone's Panglossian rejection of your concerns or misgivings
• some defense experts urging President Biden not to withdraw more troops from Afghanistan, saying that the Trump administration's February 2020 agreement with the Taliban rests on unrealistic and Panglossian assumptions (namely, that the Taliban will sever all ties with al-Qaeda and not attack the Afghan government's security forces)
• prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, many leading Americans harboring the Panglossian belief that no sooner was Saddam out of the way, that nation would become a thriving democracy in America's image--something that is still nowhere in sight

© 2021 V.J. Singal
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