Why “pollyannaism” is a great word
POLLYANNAISM — [Noun] The persistent, often unwarranted practice of finding cause for optimism in every situation, especially adversity. From the name Pollyanna, the child heroine of Eleanor H. Porter's 1913 novel "Pollyanna", known for her relentless optimism, combined with the suffix -ism, denoting a distinctive practice, system, or philosophy. Unlike optimism, a general hopefulness, or pessimism, its shadowed opposite, pollyannaism is a willed, systematic cheer that verges on the doctrinal. It is the forced gratitude for a sprained ankle because it wasn't broken, the bright declaration that an empty larder is an opportunity for a fast, the cheerful clatter of rearranging deck chairs on a tilting ship—a gloss applied so thickly it threatens to obscure the grain of reality beneath, making the light it seeks seem strangely flat and untrustworthy.