Why is enthusiasm often perceived as naivety?

Happiness is the default human condition.
Only outsiders can fuck up your happiness by stealing it.
In our time, government does that. In the past it was the institutional church.
Why do people put up with that?

Because good natured, good humored, enthusiastic and cheery people are rare indeed. Nothing naive about feeling child like enthusiasm, excitement, freaking JOY in living. Don’t let the Eeyores rain on your parade. Kick those droopy eared little asses out of your stable and make room for Thoroughbreds with spunk.

A lot of people become jaded with age and experience. It’s easy to feel superior if you have lost your enthusiasm. If your original state is open-minded and enthusiastic, then cynicism feels like moving on to a new and more advanced state of mind. You feel like the only sane man in a world that’s gone crazy. If other people are enthusiastic, they must not be as experienced as you are. They haven’t been through what you’ve been through. Therefore, they are naive.

A lot of the above goes for negativity, too. I’ve met a lot of people who were very negative about everything around them, in a sardonic, blasé, and removed sort of way. Like if you are negative about something (a person, place, thing, or situation), you set yourself above it, and therefore you are untouchable. It’s a way to be safe.

This is also why I love it SO MUCH when people don’t take themselves too seriously. Being able to laugh at themselves, without getting down on themselves, is a sure sign of a positive and well-rounded outlook.

I think it’s possible to be open and enthusiastic and still have a completely realistic worldview. If you choose to have a positive outlook, but with a full understanding of the world , it opens you up to hurt and disappointment. But at the same time, positivity itself keeps you safe from that stuff. It’s like, a cynical person is a levee, trying to wall everything out. A positive person is a lighthouse.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:

TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” Howard Zinn

It’s perceived that way by people who are unhappy with their life. If they can’t be happy, no one can.

@Haleth so true, your words are worth gold.

Because shit wears you down. I used to be a lot more enthusiastic, then life happened. I see someone who is like I once was and I can only assume they haven’t faced their shit yet. I realize mileage can vary.

The strongest people I’ve known are people who embraced life while they fought a terrible disease before their death. I’m talking about people in their 40s and 50s who left children behind. Life wore them down but they didn’t let it change their attitude and love of life while they were living.

That’s never been my experience. I neither see those who are enthusiastic that way and I haven’t received the sense that people judge me that way when I’m enthusiastic. I just see people who love what they do or are content with their lives.

Bad logic.
Naive and stupid people do often show enthusiasm that turns out to have been unwarranted.
So some nincompoops conclude that anyone who is enthusiastic must be naive or stupid, which of course ignores the possibility that there is a good reason to be happy.

Also envy.
Grumblebutts often just can’t stand someone else being happy.

Sometimes enthusiasm is naivety. I have known people who went to different jobs and were enthusiastic about it, yet 5 years later that job has become a source of stress and unhappiness because there was much more involved in doing the job than they first realized. Or couples are happy and enthusiastic about getting married and having a family, 10 years later the couple are constantly fighting about money and how to discipline a 10 year old son who is constantly in trouble at school. Both were naïve about how hard it is to keep a marriage happy and the difficulty of raising a child.

That is not to say that all enthusiastic people are naïve but indeed some may be.