A Slap to the idea of an Idealist Future

In Election Expectations, Wray Herbert takes to a pragmatic way of journalism that has been such a rarity this election season that attempts to lower the bar of expectations of our new president elect. For the past year or so, journalists and media have been preaching of a new, idealistic future, whoever the winner may be. Now that this grueling election has concluded with a sudden and for some unexpected one day finale, people have started to look towards the future. Many Americans feel optimistic about the future and have not put the possibility of an idealistic future out of the picture, nor have they considered the possibility of just an average next four years. Herbert attempts to explain why people do not plan for future disappointment in a series of fancy and sometimes unclear scientific facts. One could even go so far as to say Herbert is being a pessimistic fool. But what he is really trying to do is lay some cushions down so that if people are disappointed, they will land with a little less pain. Through Scientific terms and explanations, Herbert attempts to prove that humans are bound to be unprepared for disappointment and failure. In many ways he succeeds, but I think his main reason for writing the article is to just put a warning out there for the thousands of new idealistic Americans. I applaud his efforts to plan for failure, because without people like him we would fall hard and struggle to get back up on our feet after our idealistic goals fail.