Gramsci’s famous quote (which I paraphrase as ‘Pessimism of the mind, optimism of the will’) unexpectedly resonates at the end of this podcast from CBC Radio’s “Out of Their Minds” program about Tesla-like inventors who persist on their vision despite public/peers’ resistance. To quote,

A tragic hero? Maybe, maybe it’s a hybrid of both. But I do know that, if we didn’t have these people, we would be much worse off as a society.

followed by their quote from a Raymond Williams:

To be truly radical, is to make hope possible, rather than despair convincing.

Another paraphrase of Gramsci?

As an aside, the first quote, above, is from Toronto Star’s Tyler Hamilton, the author of “Mad Like Tesla.”. His comment about leaving behind “morsels of innovation”, to be built upon by others, is reminiscent of the BBC’s old “Connections” series, with James Burke. The Jacquard Loom, the ancestor of all computers, came about as a set of improvements by a whole series of people.