One of the questions this morning on C-Span referenced a Wall Street Journal editorial this morning asking "Are Liberals pessimistic?" Okay, the question itself implies a gross simplification, but it's interesting in its own way.

And while I was listening to some of the responses, I thought about the field of SF. I've remarked here that the more I become immersed in the subculture the more I learn about SF writers.

The younger crowd definitely seems more upbeat. Many of the middle-aged and older SF writers, even many of the successful ones, seem bitter and pessimistic.

And then, there's a lot of overlap between liberalism and the subculture of SF. It seems to me, with no statistical data to back it up, that about 75% of the SF community could be classified as liberal. That sound about right?

I've also remarked here that I felt not enough of SF was hopeful. That is, technology is often portrayed as the villain of the story. Our lives are going to, on the whole, get worse because of technological advances (e.g., dehumanization, destruction of the environment, etc.).

Anyway, this post has been extremely cohesive, but I'll just restate the question and leave it at that:

Do you think SF writers are pessimistic?