Is it possible to be optimistic about 'Pessimism'?

Is this a question, or a push poll?

Is this a “Loaded” question? Are you looking for an answer that “leans” one way rather than the other. Do all the quotation marks make your question (or diatribe) clearer?

i think it’s best to be “realistic”

@eponymoushipster beat me to it. I know many pessimists that say they are “realists”.

Do you all realize that if each individual got themselves in order, regardless of their global outlook, the world would work itself out?

Well, let’s just see your approach by your answer, shall we?

Pessimists are more incapable of imagining a positive response, so it’s not a matter of ambition to achieve so much as being incapable of imagining the option of something better. That’s the justification.

Optimists (or whatever you imagine yourself to be) IMHO are generally naive to some realities (or causes and effects, if you will) and often do no better in the effort to pave that road with their good intentions.

If you can’t see that you and the pessimist are part of the same creation (and orient yourself accordingly), you aren’t there yet.

I am a pessimistic optimist. Things will get better, but not soon.

@lloydbird . . . Realist=me=expect the worst and hope for the best

Only when I am short on the market.

@kevbo I very much regard myself to be firmly within the ‘optimists’ camp and thus cannot be dissuaded. Lucky me!
Pessimists are just something that I have to endure (and work upon) because of my ‘positive’ position. Please excuse my ‘working upon’ activities, because they are well intentioned.

Good luck!

@lloydbird . . .Enduring Pessimists is a pretty pessimistic statement if I do say so myself.

I’m optimistic that pessimism’s shortcomings will eventually be plainly seen by those who hold pessimism in high esteem.

As far as pessimism being “realistic” I think realism is a situational word that people use to justify their own particular perceptions of life and existence, but are not entirely accurate.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic . . .You do realize that what you just said can be used as a template, right?

Just replace pessimism/optimism with Christian/Atheist or Republican/Democrat and it becomes interchangeable.

@Blondesjon Sure, ok.

The quality and scope of pessimism will increase as people are inexorably compelled by circumstances to abandon Pollyannaism. So, yes I am optimistic about pessimism.

@kevbo Thanks, but I’m very hopeful that I won’t need it.

I’d like to think so, but I doubt it.

Yes

I like my miserable defeatism. It makes things seem important. Then again, it makes everything seem funny, too. Out of misery comes laughter. I mean, what else can you do? When it gets that bad, it’s a challenge to take yourself seriously. Or, at least, that’s what happened to me.

I much prefer life when I don’t expect to get anywhere I was planning to go. When I take it seriously, I am inevitably disappointed. My desire is foolish, I think, because it makes me believe the delusion that I have any control over anything. And yet, my desire keeps me going—ever hopeful that one day, I might take a step closer to it.

Hah! Who am I kidding?

Pessimism + Optimism = Contradiction

@eponymoushipster I like your answer “realistic.”

I remember recenty seeing on TV that pessimists are better at managing their money. I could not find the exact info on line, but I found this small study shows pessimists are more likely to make more money http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5919.php This one says pessimists do better in law school http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2008_spr/monahan.htm