“But if,” I said, “you picture to yourself that you are pulling against some powerful and oppressive enemy, the struggle will become merely exciting and not exasperating. Imagine that you are tugging up a lifeboat out of the sea. Imagine that you are roping up a fellow-creature out of an Alpine crevass. Imagine even that you are a boy again and engaged in a tug-of-war between French and English.” Shortly after saying this I left him; but I have no doubt at all that my words bore the best possible fruit. I have no doubt that every day of his life he hangs on to the handle of that drawer with a flushed face and eyes bright with battle, uttering encouraging shouts to himself, and seeming to hear all round him the roar of an applauding ring.
So I do not think that it is altogether fanciful or incredible to suppose that even the floods in London may be accepted and enjoyed poetically. Nothing beyond inconvenience seems really to have been caused by them; and inconvenience, as I have said, is only one aspect, and that the most unimaginative and accidental aspect of a really romantic situation. An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
Reeks of privilege, stupidity, with an air of moral superiority. Impractical, useless.
Likens a flooded London to Venice; talks about seeing the positivity in everything. Toxic Positivity. It’s not a romantic view, it’s a sight of utter helplessness, damage, poverty, and homelessness. Lives of people lost, homes lost, belongings lost. And this privileged MFer feels “savage envy”. At least he got the savage part right.
Urges everyone to look at life through a child’s eye; full of wonder and amazement. Says society takes itself too seriously. That it laughs at others to deflect from its own problems. Likes to laugh at others misery.
Says inconveniences are just missed adventures. that “most of the inconveniences that make men swear or women cry are really sentimental or imaginative inconveniences.” and ” the true optimist who sees in such things an opportunity for enjoyment is quite as logical and much more sensible than the ordinary “Indignant Ratepayer” who sees in them an opportunity for grumbling”. Optimist? Sounds more like the average schadenfreude enjoyer at best, and sadistic opportunist at worst.