This is not a case of reckless optimism triumphing over the reality of continuing political failure – let alone over the apparent indifference of the majority of people as we further erode the political foundations on which our lives depend.
"This is one of these times when unrealistic optimism triumphed over responsibility to the public," said Carol Tucker Foreman, a consumer advocate who ran the Agriculture Department's food-safety programs in the Carter administration.
The neighborhood is emerging as a powerful symbol of the potential for renewal in cities in Africa and around the world and a signal that innovation and optimism can triumph over poverty and crime.
But it is also a country in which hope and optimism have triumphed over bitterness and repression.
Last Wednesday morning it was the scene of a much more sombre and fractious gathering that will be remembered as the moment when the optimism surrounding that triumph gave way to the complicated and expensive reality of bringing the world's greatest sporting event to Britain.
But many of the more than 150 films in the festival, ranging from shorts like the 14-minute Spanish film "Bamboleho" to major Hollywood premieres like "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones," were about optimism and eventual triumph over tough odds, not the kinds of pictures you'd expect from an event associated with the men responsible for the disco-era noir of "Taxi Driver".
Such triumphs of optimism over experience are common enough.
At a time when "official" American culture often insisted that the American story was one of endless triumphs and optimism, they told stories of tragic fate.
The atmosphere is likened to other great British triumphs of optimism over reason, such as the queue for Wimbledon, or the belief that sleeping outside Harrods in order to take advantage of 30% off a £6,000 dinner service constitutes saving money.
It is not news that acting requires a huge ego and capacity for rejection, but as this crisply edited, 13-part series goes on, it constructs gripping, personalized narratives that offer a firsthand look at the optimism, defeats and small triumphs of a struggling actor's life.
"That proved to be the triumph of optimism over reality".
