Nostalgia pelo optimismo...

Este parágrafo, que retirei da biografia de Keynes de Robert Skidelsky, resume de forma excelente as causas do meu fascínio por esta época, uma espécie de idade de ouro em que tudo parecia possível:

Leonard Woolf, returning from seven years in Ceylon, strongly felt the exhilaration of life in 1911, when it seemed as if the world was on the brink of becoming civilised. It was a wonderfully sunny summer. In politics it looked 'as if militarism, imperialism, and antisemitism were on th run'. The revolution of te motor car and aeroplane had started; Freud, Rutherford and Einstein had begun their work. 'Equally exciting things were happening in the arts. On the stage the hattering impact of Ibsen was still belatedly powerful and we felt that Ibsen had a worthy successor in Shaw as a revolutionary... In painting we were in the middle of the revolution of Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso... And to crown all, night after night we flocked to Covent Garden, entranced by a new art, a revelation to us benighted British, the Russian ballet in the great days of Diaghilev and Nijinsky.' Bloomsbury felt no premonition of disaster, only a joyful sense of awakening after the long Victorian night.

Infelizmente, esta verdadeira "bolha" de esperança rebentou irremdiavelmente com a 1ª Guerra Mundial, e os horrores do século que se lhe seguiram - as ditaduras, a 2ª Guerra Mundial, o medo do nuclear, etc. Conseguiremos alguma vez recuperar aquele optimismo? Duvido muito...