Foreword: Just My Opinion™
Pessimists are creatives who are able to see the worst possible outcomes. To me, this means we have people who are able to effectively sound the alarm, and it’s worth at least listening to what they have to say.
I feel Pessimism is shunned nowadays because it comes close enough to Realism so as to be uncomfortably familiar, as what we’re seeing unfold is one of the worst potentialities we had at our disposal (I think most if not all of us agree that we couldn’t have anticipated a dystopia THIS fucking stupid).
In a healthy society, however, one in which things work in favour of the citizens and every soul has the necessities of life assured, Pessimism would serve as a cautionary element. It would demonstrate the disasters we’re avoiding or will have to avoid.
I feel this has always been its role, from Ancient Greek Tragedies to contemporary dystopian sci-fi, but somewhere along the way it became something to be avoided like the plague (see Toxic Optimism/Positivism).
Well, that would be fair, except I’ve stated no preference for pessimism:)) In my view it is just as important as Optimism. Two sides of the same coin.
Edit: and the current situation demonstrates that, in fact, reality itself can be horrible enough for the Pessimists to be right:))
I’d argue that your tone throughout the post says otherwise, but if I misinterpreted that, the only word I would change is the “you” in the last sentence to “pessimists”. As not to point fingers, but the point still stands
I honestly don’t know which to which “you” you’re referring, it’s in neither the last, or the second-to-last paragraph. :-?
As far as my tone goes, well… how else could I make a case for Pessimism if not by using at least a quasi-positive tone around it?
I just changed it.
Oooh, I got it now, sorry!
I’m not saying Pessimism can’t be taken to the extremes (same as some Optimists believe that Optimism is best, which is arguably why we’re still neck-deep in crap, but I digress). I wasn’t arguing for that, though, I was arguing for a healthy inclusion of Pessimism in our thought processes, just as we should do with Optimism.
Also, funnily enough, this is exactly why the thought hit me, I was thinking about just how many people oppose Pessimism without even considering its worth, based on generalised preconceptions:))
Funny, I’m typically used to people leaning towards pessimism as the “smarter” perspective, and optimists being considered in naive or ignorant to “How things really are.”
And reading your post in that context felt like reinforcement of that concept.
To be perfectly clear, I’m more optimistic, and I believe that if someone’s pessimism is constantly bringing them down, then they should probably not lean so hard into it. But I wouldn’t say one is better than another, we need as many differing perspectives as possible to create real working solutions.
Well, hey, fully valid that I may be biased in a similar way, but in reverse, having been surrounded mostly by people who refuse to see The Darkness even if it’s actively slapping them… In either case, I agree with you, it takes a balance between them, as always!
You’ve actually expressed my point way better than I have, so I guess that bias is at least present in the direction from which I approach expressing the idea:-?