Optimism, altruism, and mild insanity

What is on my mind? Oddly enough, considerations of how politicians differ from human rights defenders. I am inspired by the last election campaign and the participation of many of my colleagues in it. And that’s what I recalled.

In 1996, I was in the United States for a month under the International Visitor Program as part of an international group (22 human rights activists from 20 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America). I then saw that human rights defenders are very similar regardless of race, skin color, ethnic origin, language, etc. I then saw that human rights activists are alike regardless of race, skin color, ethnic origin, language, etc. I decided to test this hypothesis with the help of psychological research, at least in Ukraine. Together with professional psychologists from Kharkiv University, in 1997-1998, we tested several groups of Ukrainian and Russian human rights activists and were convinced that the hypothesis held. We found that human rights activists have certain identical qualities. They are all, firstly, optimists; secondly, altruists; thirdly, they are a little crazy (there was an excellent publication about this at the time). Fourthly, they are keenly aware of and cannot stand lies from politicians; fifth, they have strong nerves; sixth, their increased creativity distinguishes them; seventh, most have a developed sense of humor. I think the first four features are the most significant in identifying human rights activists—optimism, altruism, slight madness, and a keen attitude towards lies from politicians.

I am not aware of other studies of this nature.