Optimism, pesimism, or realism?

Deliberately pessimistic?

edited 13th Feb '12 9:00:57 AM by Ekuran

Optimistic pessimism.

...Do oxymorons make ya happy?

Why, yes, they do. They amuse me and my need for impossible contexts in realistic discussions.

Unless it is Microsoft Works, which makes me very sad.

I prefer realism. Pessimism gets really annoying after a while, and optimism can lead to you overestimate how well things go. Actually, optimism can be annoying, too, but it's not as draining to deal with as pessimism.

I hung around a group of people who were the most pessimistic, cynical people ever. They made me want to never get out of bed. What was even funnier was that these people thought their pessimism and cynicism made them smarter than everyone else, even when they were clearly wrong about how things were going.

So I ditched their asses and never looked back.

At least with optimism you get hope.

Optimistic realism is best.

this guy gets it

@Norm: Yeah, it's really aggravating when people think they're so much wiser because they're negative, and that the world must be negative from their negative experiences. One time a sixteen year-old tried to tell me no one truely cares about anyone but themselves.

There's some decent argument to be made in favour of that stance as you've written it, in that we can consider even altruistic motives to be ultimately self-interested. That said, I also don't see how it's necessarily negative - I'd have thought it a simple and rather intriguing idea.

Of course, if the kid was just whinging, sure, they're an ass.

edited 15th Feb '12 8:13:44 AM by ekuseruekuseru

Realistic optimist. With occasional slides into pessimism.

I can see how the kid might have a point. I mean, there can be some degree of selfishness in what people do. Even altruism might involve internal self-gratification. Then again, maybe he was just "whinging".

I try to be realistic, but I think in practice I'm more pessimistic.

I've thought over the "altruism involves self-gratification" thing a lot, and you know what? I've decided it's true a lot of the time, but it's not such a bad thing. It's better to feel happy because you're sharing in another's joy than to feel happy because you're callously manipulating somebody for your own ends, right? And at least you're still helping people.

Anyway, I'm a former pessimist who's becoming more of a realist.

I am a pessimistic idealist.

I believe everyone is a good person but either way bad crap is going to happen to me.

I guess I'm more pessmistic than I thought then, because I feel the exact same way, not that my life is bad crap after bad crap all the time, just that no matter how great someone you meet is, they're going to hurt you atleast once, just as you'll hurt people.

edited 15th Feb '12 5:43:14 PM by GigglesMcYummy

A cynical idealist, but ultimately my idealism beats the cynicism in most instances. The skepticism that accompanies cynicism can be quite helpful.

I'm getting quite a bit into Chesterton's work, and I find that I agree with him on optimism and pessimism. Both concepts are basically nonsense — not because they are wrong, but because there is no way to give them any meaning. All right, the optimist believes that the world is mostly good and the pessimist believes that it is mostly bad; but good or bad in comparison to what?

Unless this is specified, either concept is equally meaningless.

The only correct sort of "optimism" (but it could be equally called "pessimism", in a way) is, in essence, a sense of patriotism with respect to the whole universe. I belong here. I love it here, not because it is good, but because I want it to be good.

Insofar as it is good already, I will love it for its goodness; and insofar as it is bad, I will love it for its potential to become better.

I try to be the right sorts of all of them, but try to stick most to realism. As for right sorts. See what Carcio posted.

As it is it varies based on my mood. I can be highly pessimistic or highly optimistic or in a nice balanced realistic state.

What's it called when you want the universe to be good and intend to punch it in the face until it agrees?

I'm more optimistic than Gottfried Leibniz on World Peace Day.

It's called Awesomism.

Realism of course.

I'm a realist. Most people call me a pessimist, though, even though they're pretty much the same thing.

edited 18th Feb '12 5:28:24 PM by Zennistrad

This post was thumped by the Codfish in a Derby Hat