What this dude said. It just seems easier when you know that not everything is sunshine and sparkles.OldKingClancy said:
Optimist, Pessimist or Nihilist, and why?
- Thread starter AdeptaSororitas
- Start date
For the most part I'm an optimist. I don't think people are inherently evil. Of course there will be exceptions and everyone has had bad days and bad experiences which they may be unable to cope with. Some people are bullies and some people are unflappable dicks (heh heh). I think that everyone wants to make things better in some way or another.
I am also a realist in that I a know life, when you get right down to it, is a series of random encounters and events thus making anything possible. Absolutely ANYTHING is possible from extreme good to, extreme bad to, YTP levels of double-you, tee, eff.
I am also a realist in that I a know life, when you get right down to it, is a series of random encounters and events thus making anything possible. Absolutely ANYTHING is possible from extreme good to, extreme bad to, YTP levels of double-you, tee, eff.
Optimist. The world is not as bad as the Media portrays(Irony for wanting a Job in the Media) and there are lots of good people. Cops, for example, spend here days looking after us.
Generally speaking, by the time humans reach adulthood their disposition attains a set level (Optimism, Pessimism, or Indifference) and will stay that way for the rest of their life. It's hard to justify an inherent piece of your personality, so I'm just gonna say I'm probably an optimist.
I'm constantly thinking of ways that things could be better, in spite of the acknowledgement that most of the things I think can/will never happen. I can't help but feel that it's better than the alternative. I can never understand people who say "What's the use in trying?", because, well... What's the use in *not* trying?
My goal in life is not to be great, or even particularly good, so long as I leave the tiny part of the world I inhabit even marginally better than I found it.
I'm constantly thinking of ways that things could be better, in spite of the acknowledgement that most of the things I think can/will never happen. I can't help but feel that it's better than the alternative. I can never understand people who say "What's the use in trying?", because, well... What's the use in *not* trying?
My goal in life is not to be great, or even particularly good, so long as I leave the tiny part of the world I inhabit even marginally better than I found it.
Is there a fifth option: some people are good and some people are bad, the world is basically neutral.
Generally an optimist. Why live only to feel negative all the time? Shit happens but you might as well appreciate what you have.
Nearly everyone aspires towards being a realist, or understanding the situation in its entirety.
What optimism and pessimism are, is how you fill in the gaps of what you do not know - do you fill them in with happy thoughts, or unhappy? Or do you split them 50/50 in an attempt to remain realistic? In which case, you're neither.
I'm neither.
With that said, I find that inspiring optimism is a positive action if you're a leader, even if you yourself are not really optimistic in your thinking. If people have faith in the future (at least faith that if they work on it it will get somewhere) and work towards it in that way, that can only be productive. Pessimism will just make people too lazy to act.
Look at climate change. "Oh, it's too big a problem, we can't do anything about it" - that mindset, even if it were accurate (and in my strong opinion, it is not), is an extremely harmful thing to spread throughout the populace, because it will make people lethargic and unlikely to bother to slow down the problem, much less try to stop it. Even if you don't believe in climate change, reducing pollution massively is something more than one branch of science is saying we have to do, so this should be taken as an opportunity to act anyway, rather than give up.
As for fatalism, I consider the meaning of one's life to default to nothing, unless we work towards a greater purpose and contribute to it with devotion, time and energy. So, I fit in none of the definitions of the OP. Which makes me happy.
What optimism and pessimism are, is how you fill in the gaps of what you do not know - do you fill them in with happy thoughts, or unhappy? Or do you split them 50/50 in an attempt to remain realistic? In which case, you're neither.
I'm neither.
With that said, I find that inspiring optimism is a positive action if you're a leader, even if you yourself are not really optimistic in your thinking. If people have faith in the future (at least faith that if they work on it it will get somewhere) and work towards it in that way, that can only be productive. Pessimism will just make people too lazy to act.
Look at climate change. "Oh, it's too big a problem, we can't do anything about it" - that mindset, even if it were accurate (and in my strong opinion, it is not), is an extremely harmful thing to spread throughout the populace, because it will make people lethargic and unlikely to bother to slow down the problem, much less try to stop it. Even if you don't believe in climate change, reducing pollution massively is something more than one branch of science is saying we have to do, so this should be taken as an opportunity to act anyway, rather than give up.
As for fatalism, I consider the meaning of one's life to default to nothing, unless we work towards a greater purpose and contribute to it with devotion, time and energy. So, I fit in none of the definitions of the OP. Which makes me happy.
your description of fatalism is totaly wrong. you're describing nihilism. fatalism is when you believe in fate. it's closer to predeterminism.AdeptaSororitas said:
Ergh, I'm kind of a mix of all of those, it really depends on my mood at the time. The only one that's constant with me is nihilist. Since an afterlife hasn't been proven thus far, or that life is around to achieve a higher purpose, it really does seem like there's overall point to life. That doesn't mean I'm depressed, suicidal, or believe life isn't worth living, heck no. I think, hey, you know what, this may be all we get and in the end nothing will have mattered, buuuuuut you know what? Why not just live it for the hell of it just because you can? There's no reason to do otherwise.