Hearkening back to the jargon of his military days, Colin Powell once referred to optimism as the ultimate “force multiplier” in political life.

He was slipping into Pentagon-speak for a capability which dramatically enhances (or multiplies) the probability of successfully achieving a desired objective.

Battle-hardened in Vietnam and further steeled by the cynical gamesmanship and rampant political manoeuvring he encountered in Washington DC, the former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State hardly fits the standard profile of a cock-eyed optimist.

After all, he has a better appreciation than most of the frequently amoral power dynamics of realpolitik as it is generally practised in the modern world.

Almost unfashionably high-principled in an age of counterfeit convictions and disposable ethics, General Powell walked away from a Cabinet-level position in the last Bush White House rather than continue to lend his moral authority to the quagmire of the Iraq invasion.

Perhaps precisely because of his first-hand exposure to the serial contrivances and distortions of a war lobby that promised the world a three-week “cakewalk” in Iraq, his faith in the power of optimism to alter the political culture for the better remains undiminished.

This longtime friend of Bermuda — and longer-time friend of Sir John Swan, the former premier — has never fallen prey to the routine thinking which too often reduces the political process to a lacklustre choice between the despicable and the merely distasteful.

Gen Powell’s point is a simple and incontestable one: the hopefulness and enthusiasm a leader brings to his or her position can be contagious, can in fact spread through an entire country like ripples in the proverbial pond.

So, of course, can the cynicism, pessimism and coldly self-serving calculations of leaders who exploit discontent and social divisions to further their own ends rather than those of their people.

Tempering idealism with realism, pragmatism and sound judgment, Gen Powell has said, allows for confidence and a renewed sense of the possible to flow from the top down.

“Leadership is all about people,” he has said, “and getting the most out of people.”

So according to what could be termed the Powell Doctrine of Achievable Political Objectives, successful leadership is often best predicated on conveying a sense of purpose, belonging and direction. This is particularly true at times when the gulf between expectations and straitened realities has opened up to the degree it has in the post-recessionary world.

“You have to have a sense of optimism,” said Gen Powell. “Followers need to know where their leaders are taking them and for what purpose.

“Purpose is the destination of a vision. It energises that vision, gives it force and drive. It should be positive and powerful.

“Good leaders set vision, mission, and goals. Great leaders inspire every follower at every level to internalise their purpose.”

Gen Powell, who was recently in Bermuda on a private visit, is too modest — and perhaps too much the consummate diplomat — to ever suggest a vision of leadership he freely admits is drawn from personal experiences and observations is the final word on the subject.

Nevertheless, his commonsensical leaps from perception to deduction, from the particular to the general, do have much to recommend them, particularly on an Island where optimism was one of the chief casualties of the 2008 economic contraction, along with full employment, a buoyant real estate market and a burgeoning Gross Domestic Product.

The ongoing coarsening of Bermuda’s political discourse, the overreliance by both parties on what spin doctors call “negative messaging” to amplify and reinforce existing doubts and fears, is continuing to sap the morale of our people and undermine the confidence of overseas investors.

Managing the complex and turbulent events that are shaping our times is no easy task.

No one is suggesting there will not ever be legitimate disagreements and differences of opinion on the best way to manage them: as the historian Barbara Tuchman remarked, a country that substitutes placid consensus for healthy debate on every issue is a country ready for the graveyard.

However, a country that allows incessant partisan political squabbling, non-stop electioneering and scaremongering to regularly overshadow the common good and the public interest is a country which is also hastening its way to the graveyard.

No matter the true extent of its utility as a “force multiplier”, a healthy infusion of optimism — particularly given the potential of the America’s Cup and its associated benefits to revitalise our long-stagnating economy — would be the most welcome of developments on the Bermudian political scene at this juncture.