Pessimism

This month I have been to some end-of-specialty exams, where young specialists get their degree recognized by our Medical Board after a 5 years internship. The final question to a girl who had performed magnificently was: "so what do you think will be the challenges in the Nephrology field in the next 2 decades?". Her answer was about finding cheaper ways to treat patients, containing dialysis costs, the ethical questions of withholding treatment... A member of the jury then vented what we, older nephrologists, were thinking: "this is the sad result of the state of psychiatric depression that comes from the economic depression... How differently we all would have answered that question 20 years ago!".

Actually, everything she said was quite right and legitimate. But she wasn't talking about challenges for the next 2 decades, she was talking about our present concerns, the challenges we're facing right now. Any one of us, older guys, would have talked about stem cells, xenotransplantation, portable artificial kidneys, whatever. And it made us really sad that the present generation is so burdened with the financial crisis and its troubles that they cannot envisage a different future. That's one of the main problems with economic depression, the effect it has on people, it shortens their views, their horizons. People worry about the present, the morrow, stop thinking big.

What a difference from 38 years ago, when Lisbon - and all Portugal - was burning with hope, the 48 year-old decrepit dictatorship toppled by a coup by young army officers! For all the naiveté, for the the blunders in the next few years, it was a time of overflowing optimism. I was just a child then but I'm happy to have lived through those times, when people believed things would be better and were actually doing something for that. Will we ever be that optimistic again?