"'What is optimism?' asked Cacambo. 'It's the for maintaining all is right when all goes wrong with us.'"

Optimism. Something not everybody has. Something people wish to acquire, but still annoys many. Something Pangloss had. He used to say everything is for the best and that we "live in the best of all possible worlds." But is this really so? Is there no place that could be better than the one we live in?

It is true: we are living in a world quite different from the one Voltaire was referring to. But we still keep all those aspects he so strongly disapproved of. We have religions, lack of free will (even though supposedly do have it). and wars all the time. But he must've know that it would always be the same.  This is evident when Candide asks "Do you think, that men have always massacred each other, as the do to-day, that they have always been weak, inconstant, mean-spirited, envious, greedy, drunken, miserly, ambitious, bloody, slanderous, debauched, fanatic, hypocritical, and stupid?" And Martin only answers: "Do you think, that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they could find them?" (Page 96) So it is obvious that Voltaire believes that all these bad characteristics of humans, are simply in their nature. There's just no way to change it.

There are better places to live in. If this is the best of possible worlds, what would the worst be like? We have people living in squalor, we have orphans living on the streets, we have children working and fighting to survive in awful places. So what a great place it is for everybody! It is true, this is the best of all possible worlds for me. I have nothing to complain about, and basically everything I could ever want and few will ever have. But it is not just me in this world. It's almost seven billion people, of which more than 50% have a difficult life in which each day is another fight for survival.