Voltai e
was
a
i flue tial
F e ch
E lighte me t
philosophe
a d
w ite
who
champio ed
easo ,
f eedom
of
thought,
a d
eligious
tole a ce
while
c iticizi g
i justice
a d
i tole a ce.
Imagi e
sta di g
o
the
deck
of
a
ocea
li e
whe
a
sudde
sto m
tea s
the
ship
ope .
The
e gi e
stops,
wate
ushes
i to
the
lowe
pa ts
of
the
ship,
a d
the
vessel
begi s
its
u avoidable
jou ey
i to
the
da k
Atla tic.
I
the
chaos,
you
ma age
to
get
a
seat
i
a
small
woode
lifeboat
with
a
few
othe
su vivo s.
The
ship
is
go e.
No
help
is
i
sight.
You
ca
eithe
sta e
at
the
da k
wate
i
complete
despai ,
o
you
ca
clea
you
th oat
a d
sta t
to
si g.This
powe ful
image
lies
at
the
hea t
of
a
wquoted
sayi g:
“Life
is
a
shipw eck,
but
we
must
ot
fo get
to
si g
i
the
lifeboats.”The
stateme t
exp esses
a
basic
t uth
about
huma
life.
Suffe i g,
c isis,
a d
eve tual
death
a e
ot
u usual
p oblems
i
huma
existe ce;
they
a e
pa t
of
it.
Yet,
the
quote
efuses
to
accept
complete
hopeless ess.
It
says
that
eve
though
we
ca ot
stop
the
la ge
p oblems
of
life,
we
still
have
co t ol
ove
how
we
espo d
to
them.
Si gi g
i
the
lifeboat
is
ot
about
p ete di g
that
eve ythi g
is
fi e
o
bli dly
believi g
that
thi gs
will
get
bette .
It
is
a
co scious
a d
b ave
choice
to
esist
despai
a d
choose
a t,
f ie dship,
a d
joy
eve
whe
life
gives
us
eve y
easo
to
give
up.
The
histo ia
who
spoke
fo
Voltai e
While
websites,
coffee
mugs,
a d
self-help
books
ofte
att ibute
the
li e
to
the
famous
18th-ce tu y
F e ch
E lighte me t
w ite
F a çois-Ma ie
A ouet,
bette
k ow
as
Voltai e,
the
histo ical
t uth
is
mo e
complicated.
Voltai e
eve
actually
w ote
o
said
those
exact
wo ds.The
se te ce
comes
f om
Pete
Gay,
a
famous
Ge ma -Ame ica
histo ia
a d
p ofesso
at
Columbia
U ive sity.
I
1963,
Gay
published
a
t a slatio
of
Voltai e’s
1759
maste piece,
Ca dide,
o
Optimism.
I
his
i t oductio
to
the
book,
Gay
explai ed
Voltai e’s
mai
ideas
a d
exp essed
them
i
his
ow
memo able
wo ds:
“If
this
life
is
a
dese t,
it
is
ou
duty
to
make
a
oasis
i
it;
if
this
life
is
a
shipw eck,
we
must
escue
as
ma y
as
we
ca ,
a d
ot
fo get
to
si g
i
the
lifeboats.”Ove
the
yea s,
w ite s
a d
comme tato s
took
the
seco d
pa t
of
Gay’s
se te ce,
emoved
his
ame,
a d
attached
it
to
Voltai e.
By
the
1970s,
the
w o g
att ibutio
had
become
commo
i
Ame ica
ewspape s
a d
books.Howeve ,
Gay’s
ve sio
was
actually
ve y
close
to
Voltai e’s
eal
philosophy.
I
a
lette
w itte
i
1760,
Voltai e
w ote,
“The
wo ld,
my
f ie d,
is
o e
g eat
shipw eck:
a d
ma ‘s
motto,
‘Save
you self
if
you
ca .’”
Voltai e
also
spe t
much
of
his
ca ee
attacki g
the
simple
optimism
of
thi ke s
such
as
Gottf ied
Wilhelm
Leib iz,
who
believed
that
we
live
i
the
“best
of
all
possible
wo lds.”
Afte
the
te ible
Lisbo
ea thquake
of
1755,
which
killed
te s
of
thousa ds
of
people
withi
mi utes,
Voltai e
a gued
that
the
wo ld
was
b oke ,
chaotic,
a d
i diffe e t
to
huma
suffe i g.
Yet,
at
the
e d
of
Ca dide,
he
famously
w ote
that
“we
must
cultivate
ou
ga de ,”
mea i g
that
people
should
focus
o
small,
useful,
a d
co st uctive
actio s
eve
whe
the
wo ld
a ou d
them
is
falli g
apa t.
Gay
simply
eplaced
the
ga de
with
a
so g
i
a
lifeboat.
The
mo ality
of
t agic
optimism
Philosophically,
the
idea
of
si gi g
i
the
lifeboat
co ects
closely
with
mode
existe tialism
a d
with
what
Aust ia
psychiat ist
Vikto
F a kl
called
“t agic
optimism.”F a kl,
who
su vived
the
te ible
co ditio s
of
Nazi
co ce t atio
camps,
i cludi g
Auschwitz,
a gued
i
his
1946
book
Ma ’s
Sea ch
fo
Mea i g
that
life
ca
still
have
mea i g
a d
possibilities
eve
u de
the
wo st
co ditio s.
T agic
optimism
mea s
stayi g
hopeful
despite
the
“t agic
t iad”
of
huma
existe ce:
pai ,
guilt,
a d
death.
F a kl
obse ved
that
p iso e s
who
fou d
small
ways
to
p otect
thei
dig ity,
sha e
food,
o
si g
so gs
i
the
ba acks
du i g
f eezi g
ights
could
mai tai
the
me tal
st e gth
eeded
to
su vive.This
idea
is
simila
to
Albe t
Camus’s
famous
i te p etatio
of
the
sto y
of
Sisyphus.
Sisyphus
is
pu ished
by
the
gods
a d
fo ced
to
push
a
heavy
boulde
up
a
mou tai
fo eve ,
o ly
to
watch
it
oll
back
dow
each
time.
He
faces
a
task
that
has
o
fi al
victo y.
Yet
Camus
co cludes
that
“o e
must
imagi e
Sisyphus
happy.”
The
act
of
co ti ui g
to
push
the
boulde ,
i stead
of
givi g
i
to
hopeless ess,
becomes
a
fo m
of
victo y
ove
a
i diffe e t
u ive se.Si gi g
i
the
lifeboat
is
also
a
fo m
of
psychological
sepa atio .
It
accepts
that
two
diffe e t
t uths
ca
exist
at
the
same
time:
the
ship
is
t uly
go e,
but
you
voice
still
wo ks.
Radical
accepta ce
i
a
u p edictable
wo ld
I
a
time
whe
society
faces
eco omic
u ce tai ty,
climate
cha ge,
apid
tech ological
cha ge,
a d
political
te sio ,
the
idea
of
the
si gi g
lifeboat
offe s
a
impo ta t
way
to
thi k
about
su vival
a d
esilie ce.I
mode
cli ical
psychology,
this
idea
co ects
with
Dialectical
Behavio
The apy
(DBT),
especially
the
co cept
of
“ adical
accepta ce.”
Developed
by
psychologist
Ma sha
Li eha ,
adical
accepta ce
teaches
that
suffe i g
becomes
wo se
whe
we
co sta tly
esist
eality.
Whe
people
keep
telli g
themselves
that
a
bad
situatio
“should
ot
be
happe i g,”
they
ca
i c ease
thei
ow
emotio al
pai .
Accepti g
that
the
ship
has
su k
allows
people
to
stop
wasti g
e e gy
o
de ial
a d
a ge
a d
i stead
focus
o
su vivi g
i
the
lifeboat.Thi k
about
mode
busi ess
leade s
du i g
a
c isis.
Whe
a
compa y
sudde ly
faces
a
ma ket
collapse
o
a
majo
failu e,
leade s
who
pa ic
o
efuse
to
accept
the
ew
situatio
may
cause
the
compa y
to
si k
fu the .
O
the
othe
ha d,
leade s
who
accept
eality
quickly
ca
move
i to
su vival
mode.
They
ack owledge
the
loss,
p otect
the
most
impo ta t
pa ts
of
the
busi ess,
suppo t
thei
team,
a d
keep
mo ale
alive
th ough
small,
eve yday
successes.The
same
idea
appea s
i
spo ts
psychology.
Elite
ma atho
u e s
a d
e du a ce
athletes
ofte
expe ie ce
ext eme
ti ed ess,
muscle
pai ,
a d
exhaustio
du i g
difficult
aces.
The
athletes
who
fi ish
a e
ot
ecessa ily
those
who
p ete d
the
pai
is
ot
the e.
I stead,
they
accept
the
discomfo t,
co t ol
thei
b eathi g,
mai tai
thei
hythm,
a d
keep
movi g
fo wa d
despite
the
pai .To
live
with
a
clea
mi d
is
to
accept
that
eve y
pe so
will
eve tually
face
a
pe so al
shipw eck,
whethe
it
is
a
se ious
health
p oblem,
a
ca ee
failu e,
o
the
death
of
someo e
they
love.
The
wisdom
i
Gay’s
famous
stateme t
is
that
su vival
equi es
mo e
tha
simply
holdi g
o to
the
sides
of
the
lifeboat.
It
equi es
the
cou age
to
make
oise,
c eate
mea i g,
a d
si g
while
the
da k
wate s
move
be eath
us.
