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I've forgotten what it was, but I know there was a word used creatively in the 19th or early 20th century to describe in a mocking way the wishful thinking, and wildly optimistic expansive progressive vision.

"Aspirational" or "utopian" seem similar but don't pack the same mocking punch. There's sort of a transcendent character to it, the feeling that they can will a better future into being simply by wishing hard enough.

It highlights the vague or amorphous means by which the optimistic outcome will be achieved.

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Possibly chimeric.

chimeric [adjective]

...

  1. hoped for but illusory or impossible to achieve.
  • the notion of tolerance is a chimeric dream

[ODE, courtesy of Google]

Use of the word only really took off in the 1970s [Google 1-gram], but the noun 'chimera' has been used with the figurative meaning "wild fantasy" since the 1580s [Online Etymological Dictionary].

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  • Bad choice. The word chimera is used in scientific / medical literature to refer to a combination of two different things, so this word will convey that connotation.
    – Miner_Glitch
    Commented Aug 5 at 3:47
  • 'All words are infinitely polysemous'. It has been said on ELU before that even '2, 4-dinitrophenylhydrazine' can have connotations (for say someone who dropped a bottle on their toe). Context usually helps screen out unintentioned senses, and even nuances. 'If we take a look at Nezarec's concept art, we see that he is a chimeric being.' and ' "Time Flying Beats", the new record from L.A.-based producer Matthew McQueen ... is a similarly chimeric composition.', on the internet, obviously don't reference the science domain. The dictionary definition licenses such usages.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 5 at 14:20
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Shangri-La

Synonym of an earthly paradise, particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia

Shangri-La is a fictional place in Tibet's Kunlun Mountains, described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by English author James Hilton.

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Pollyanna

: a person characterized by irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything

example
Opinion: As more workers exit downtown, Louisville Mayor Greenberg needs to deal with realty and chuck his Pollyanna perspective, our Joe Gerth says in his latest column.
etymology
Pollyanna, heroine of the novel Pollyanna (1913) by Eleanor Porter †1920 American fiction writer
   Merriam-Webster

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"Quixotic" is worth considering, as Don Quixote was not the most systematic of "men of action".

(SOED) quixotic 2 Of an act, statement, etc.: showing or motivated by naive idealism, chivalry or romanticism; impracticable. M19

This word was first used first in the mid 19th century (M19: 1830-1869).

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Micawberism

unjustified or irresponsible optimism.

"This kind of Micawberism is one of the causes of failure in personal life".

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    Not to be confused with either macarism or macabre. And Dickens' Wilkins Micawber was destitute - hardly utopian. Micawberism leads to failure.
    – Phil Sweet
    Commented Aug 4 at 16:29

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