Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Why?

I believe that optimists are people that haven't gotten acquainted too much with the rest of the world. It's fine to have a hope for the future. But I used to be an optimist and think that the world could be changed to be much better than what it is now. Now I don't see it the same way anymore. I am now more convinced that rather than people acting altruistic that people act in self-serving interests and I am more inclined with the cynic worldview. I used to be like these other optimists and I was a really huge idealist, but I'm kind of more realistic and more practical now than what I used to be.

Now I'm somewhat more of a pessimist about the rest of the world... and though sometimes while I wish I could just go back to the way I was before, and be really optimistic about everything and hope that every bad thing would disappear, I don't believe in that worldview anymore. There are other people that think that the world can change in really positive ways... but I think if it changes the change would be really gradual if it happens at all. Any potential benefit could enslave humanity as much as it helps us.

Now this is what I used to be like. I used to be really optimistic about the world. I used to think that humans have the potential to make everything better. I believe humanity still does but I also am now more inclined to being a cynic. During the 2008 elections I used to think that just by voting Obama and the Democrats in office that all of a sudden everything that the Republicans were doing would be stopped and that we would be living under a world that would be designed according to the principles of what I thought the Democratic party would be.

Little did I realize how self-serving the politicians we elected into office were and how little their words really meant. These elected leaders and the people in the Tea Party now all say they are for the people but in reality when they design their economic policy they're just designing it for their corporate masters, for the military industrial complex, or for ideological reasons. Now I know the truth about politics. I know that politics is a self-serving game made by manipulators with self-serving interests. That's how I see it.

This has made me think of how self-serving people can be. Whenever someone says they're for some particular position or they're for another position now either in politics or society or like if they're just talking about something like genetic food, or something like that, I always look for self-serving interests that they have that they really are interested in. I believe that most people have an agenda and that even if they say that what they're doing is for the good of humanity they really have special interests in mind.

It's like with all these people that say they want to protect our freedom with these body scanners while the people that were behind the body scanners were lobbyists (rt.com...). So again, these people had self-serving interests and that's why they got them in place. It's the same thing with the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act claims to want to "preserve our freedoms" but it's just a front for lobbying companies for the National Security industry to make the industry better.

I would really like to believe that people are altruistic and it would make me feel so much better if I felt that people were altruistic. But, the more I think about it- I really don't think that people are. I mean, it would be great if people were really as honest as your friends were, or if people in power were interested in helping humanity they just don't see it. I've often wondered what it would be like if I just stopped caring... the world would go on without me. I know that But, I really can't stop because I see so many self-serving douchebags trying to take control of other people, manipulating other people with good intentions, that I really just can't sit there and do nothing about it.

So that's why I'm a pessimist. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Why? What are your reasons?

reply to post by Frankidealist35


I guess I am neutralist. Or perhaps a realist. But I see what you mean OP - unjustified optimism will lead to huge disappointments. So whatever I am, I am not optimist. But perhaps it depends on matter at hand. For one, I tend to think optimisticly that my life turns out well whatever happens, but I also see the pessimistic side on the world affairs.

-v

I'm an optomistic pessimist. Or should that be a pessimistic optimist?

If one can always consider the worst that can happen then one can never be dissappointed.

Neither. I consider myself a realist. Objective and often dispassionate.

The old 'Glass half full/empty' depends on perspective or subjectivity.

If you're sat in a bar looking at your glass, you may consider it half full, but from a barkeepers perspective, it is half empty.

Sometimes one needs to feel negative or pessimistic in order for something positive to happen.

My lesson would be 'don't get attached to results' rather than 'stay positive'.

Nothings ever that simple.

Nice thread though

Peace

Tricky one! Not really something I could label myself as either way. For me it all depends on the circumstance and the issue in question.

I am much more optimistic than people give me credit for, I will say that much. I can view the entire picture and the long term results of a situation. I suppose if I had to choose overall, my life experience has taught me that things work out OK, even if not how you originally intended.

I guess what I'm trying to say is if you relinquish some control, you can afford to be quite optimistic. In contrast if you have very controlled set views, on how things should turn out, you tend to be more pessimistic on the whole.

Idealist = optimist.
Realist = pessimist.

I tend to be a realist, so I would largely fall in to the ''pessimist'' camp. I can't live a lie, so I don't create a fake reality to mask the reality of the world around us.

I believe most idealists adopt that mindset as a coping mechanism, rather than facing up to a disagreeable worldview.

I'm an optimist on a personal level, but a realist on the actuality of the world.

I used posiive thinking once in my life and it virtually cost me my life and my freedoms for the rest of my life. No crime commited but it cost me the rest of my life.

So i am totally a pessimist.

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes


I like your attitude. I tried to express pretty much same thing. Optimist on a personal level, realist on the larger scale.

-v

reply to post by nerbot
Funny! I was going to say the same thing... Basically, I take in all the information I can and then make the most realistic assumption, and then shoot for the most desirable outcome... My wife tells me I'm negative, but I don't see any reason to wear a smile all day (or a frown) despite what's going on around you.

I am optimistic that bad things will continue to happen.

Not sure what the makes me.

reply to post by zroth


Makes you a pessimist, or realist.

Pessimism and realism are synonymous these days, theres hardly any good news anymore.

reply to post by Frankidealist35


I am a pessimist - in SPADES!

Like you I used to be an optimist, however in doing several years of research into the takeover of the world food supply, I have realized just what we, the "Unwashed Masses" are up against. Young bright Political Activists are recruited into "Activist Organizations" like Greenpeace or Organic Consumers Assoc or Food and Water Watch so they are "neutralized" Yet when you do some digging you find:

"Very few of even the larger international NGOs are operationally democratic, in the sense that members elect officers or direct policy on particular issues," notes Peter Spiro. "Arguably it is more often money than membership that determines influence, and money more often represents the support of centralized elites, such as major foundations, than of the grass roots." The CGG has benefited substantially from the largesse of the MacArthur, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations. www.afn.org...

When critical laws come along these organization swing their weight and public opinion in the direction the elite want. Just as Organic Consumers Assoc and Food And Water Watch did for HR 875, a bill that would regulate home gardens.

I was appalled to realize the Council on Economic Development (Banking and Corporate Elite) made the decision to wipe-out independent American farmers in 1947!!! They have had the time, the money and the professional expertise to put in place all the needed elements to get the laws they want in place, including the bought and paid for " Political Activist Chorus" If they do not succeed this year they try again next year or the next, eventually wearing down the amateurs If the Republicans can not get the bill passed then they use the Democrats. If that does not work they "manufacture a crisis" whip up public opinion with their bought and paid for media, and get a "popular" bill passed to "fix" the problem. Once public attention is caught by another Dog and Pony show, amendments are quietly added until the Corporate friendly bill they really want is in effect.

I really think the Tea Party started out as a protest against the Corporate/Banker manipulation of our government. However as I said TPTB has the money, practice and expertise to step into a situation like that round up the Activists and channel their energy in the direction they wish to go. They have complete control of the media so they can make the Tea Party look like the KKK so middle of the road people like me and progressives will not touch the Tea Party or even stop to see who they actually are. What better way to keep minorities from join than to call them racists?

When you think about it are there not a lot of things the ordinary people, conservatives or progressives, can agree on?

Like:
Toss the blood sucking leech called the Federal Reserve out and throw the worst offenders in jail
Toss the Corporate/UN NGO lobbyists out of DC
Trim the bloated government agencies and make the agents answerable to the people if they screw-up
Make sure Gov't agents check up on the big guys and go easy on the little guy instead of the other way around.
Make our Representatives READ THE BILLS!!!
Make Representatives AND Foundations report were every single dime comes from and goes to
BALANCE the BUDGET!

Personally I am hoping I am dead before they succeed in implementing Agenda 21 fully. Given the TPTB wants to kill off "useless eaters" (old folks) that will probably be the case.

Interesting question, I never thought about.

I guess I'm an optimistic realist. I'll explain...

I see and experience all the negative going around, really I do. This not a reason for me to be negative.
Actually... it's the opposite. Underneath all that negativity going down, there are also a lot of beautiful things happening. Those things give me hope.
The knowledge of people that only show interest in negative news. ( A news paper withh only good news in it would be bankrupt in no time ) Tells me that there must be even more good stuff happening then we hear about.

I also have a tendency to always see a positive side from a negative event.

Originally posted by v01i0
I like your attitude. I tried to express pretty much same thing. Optimist on a personal level, realist on the larger scale.

There are many benefits of having an optimistic outlook on a personal level.

If you go to a job interview with an attitude of ''there are probably dozens of other people going for this job, many of them will be better qualified than me, so I've got no chance of being successful'', then this attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Even if the thoughts above were a reasonably accurate appraisal of someone's prospects, then it would be far more beneficial to have an optimistic view of your chances and abilities, as you'd be much more likely to make a better impression at the interview.

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes

If you go to a job interview with an attitude of ''there are probably dozens of other people going for this job, many of them will be better qualified than me, so I've got no chance of being successful'', then this attitude can become a self-fulfilling prophecy....

True.

However I found the attitude: "Do I want to work for this company" - turning the interview around so it is more of a dialog very helpful. Especially since I used to be very shy.

reply to post by v01i0


That's pretty much how I am too. I used to be a huge optimist about the rest of the world as I've indicated in my OP but now I pretty much believe that people in power are self-serving and have other interests. So, I'm pretty pessimistic about the rest of the world and I'm often cynical about other people's intentions. But for my personal life I think things are only getting better and they'll only get better from this point on.

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


That's an interesting world view.

I have a question for you. Do you think the good news is hidden from the bad news because the MSM needs the fear to keep the masses under control and that if they saw the good news that would break the paradigm?

I'm just wondering if you think the good news is suppressed... if you know what I mean.

reply to post by Frankidealist35


I don't think good news is surpressed. People just like to hear about the bad stuff. People will not buy a paper with only good stuff in it

I consider myself as a Realist which probably puts me squarely into the Pessimist camp.

I do have an interesting story to share. I once met a simple man who grew up in a very small town in the mountains of New Mexico as a farmer. He stayed there all of his life. A man who was relatively old, and undereducated according to today's standards. A man who I didn't think had anything to share that was intellectually interesting. I was wrong.

We've all heard the story of how your either a Pessimist or an Optimist dependent on whether you consider a glass of water as being half empty or half full. If the question is truly asked by a psychologist I'd like to see the look on their face when that old man asked the psychologist "Well, what are you doing with it?" If your drinking it then it's half empty and if your filling it then it's half full. Taking it one step farther takes care of the third condition of the glass simply sitting there. It's half empty since the water is evaporating.

Totally takes the analysis out of the question.

I'd never thought about it to that level. Proof that wisdom can be found in places you don't expect.