Pessimism, Optimism, and Realism. Current events can push people to one of those -isms, reinforce existing -isms, or create brand new -isms. Let’s dig.
Per the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ‘pessimism’ is “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome”. This is the ‘glass half-empty’ crowd, who always see things in their worst possible light. “Yeah, I won the lottery, but the TAXES! It should have been MORE!” or “Yes, I’m healthy, I have a good job, and all is going well, BUT I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop! It’s going to be MISERABLE!” Pessimists are usually dour, unhappy people, without logical reasons for being so.
Optimism is the polar opposite of pessimism. Optimists can see the silver lining in a torrential downpour. They see things thru rose-colored glasses, seeing positives in conditions no one else can fathom—even to the extent of ignoring obviously negative facts. “Yeah, as snake bites go, that’s a big one! But I’ll bet it isn’t poisonous! Look at the pretty place I landed when I fell!”
Realism is defined by Webster as “concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary.” These folks believe nothing they hear, very little they see themselves, and scant little on faith. These are facts-based people—to the ignorance of anything NOT fact-based.
How do current events effect the different extreme personality types mentioned? The complete failure of our many national and local institutions—government in general, FBI, DOJ, immigration, police, and the like, are the ‘I told you so!” elements of the pessimists. While the degree of failure can be argued, the lack of success of those systems is quite obvious, and the pessimist relishes the opportunity to predict such negative outcomes. Optimists have a tougher time with decidedly negative news: pandemics, vaccines, inflation, and so on. They have a tendency to say, “Yeah, it sucks out there—but wait until this storm passes—it will be AWESOME!” Realists see the economic numbers, the facts coming out of the retreat from Afghanistan, and the poor performance of the institutions mentioned (and others), and calmly state, “That is where the trend lines were always headed. Why are you so slow to notice?”
Generally, most people do not fall into one single personality trait entirely. Most exhibit bits of all of them, depending upon their personal highs and lows. When good things happen, most do not see that as a negative; and conversely, most do not see tragic personal events as possible opportunities, with potential good times coming soon after the tumult. Folks have a tendency to moderate their happiness and sadness, except when those outlier events push them to extremes. The ups and downs inherent in most lives teach one, over time, to enjoy the good, and make their best through the bad. Granted, many folks are dealt terrible situational cards by life—too many sad events that just unfairly get heaped upon a single individual. Oddly enough, many of those of the unluckiest stripes are also the most optimistic. Go figure.
As a political and economics writer, I have a tendency toward the realist view. As an IT guy, I am quite a bit more logical and fact-based than most folks, maybe to a fault. But prior to the last few years, I had a tinge of optimism, along with a healthy dose of naivete. Maybe I just bought the hype that I was taught in History and Civics classes—that we are a great country, with great systems in place to keep it great. These systems are populated by people that, while doing their jobs and earning their paychecks, also keep the systems running as clean and worthwhile as possible. Based upon the last several years of activity, my attitude has slid from borderline optimism to classic pessimism. I now think that systems like Congress, the DOJ, the FBI, the NSA, the CIA, the police, local governments, and the like, exist not to serve the people in their domains, but to enrich themselves first, all else is secondary. Where most already had that view of nearly all politicians, I had the Pollyanna view that most were wearers of the ‘white hats’ (good guys), with a few ‘black hats’ (bad guys) sprinkled in occasionally. I have come around to the pessimist view, albeit supplanted with the realists’ view of the supporting numbers. I see things so negatively now, I truly cannot see a way to correct our Ship Of State—in fact, my view is so bad, I only question when we run aground, the fact that we WILL run aground is a given. Geez, I hope I am proven completely wrong.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article! Feel free to add comments (good or bad) in the box below. In addition, there is a link at the bottom of the article to view other items I’ve written at Global Liberty Media. Enjoy!
