JCC Optimism and Pessimism

Take it to the US hates black men thread, please.

 

I just LOL'd big time. Many people in LACWAC have told me otherwise...like a million times. I was placed in the very exclusive TCW Haters Club.

(seriously anyone who knows my history on any of the boards will chuckle at me being called an optimist)

Of course, I assume you're not aware of this because you generally don't hang out anywhere other than the JCC. Totally understandable.

Maybe I'm naturally an optimist...but I think I was nurtured on quite a bit of pessimism. Like, almost entirely on pessimism.

I think it's more accurate to say I'm a realist, and I don't care to think about things like optimism and pessimism. I never really think about the world, or metaphysics, philosophy, or any of that stuff. I'm sure I have some sort of world view, I'm just not particularly aware of it, because I hardly ever think about it. I'm an atheist (even though I rarely use that term to describe myself unless it's necessary) simply because I am and always have been, not because I spent a whole lot of time thinking about it and then chose not to believe in deities.

hey Ramza you know terms for **** like this, what would you call me? You know, other than just lazy. I know I'm a bit of a philistine, but I don't think that's entirely accurate. I can never find the right word. Materialistic? But that has a connotation involving a focus on money, which has never been me either. Hedonist? Somewhat. I'm certainly apathetic, like all the time.

I just want one term I can use to put myself in a little box, even though I don't really care enough to actually think about who I am enough to actually figure it out or put a label on myself (I just want it for convenience). I mean, I know I'm doing it right now, but this is a pretty lazy and shallow exercise, so I don't think it counts.

 

You are using far too many acronyms.

The post I referred to was more on the optimistic side.

Reject the term "atheist". You shouldn't need a term for something you don't believe in. Because if you do, imagine the amount of labels people would need. Do you believe in Santa? The Tooth Fairy? A giant pink bunny following you around? Well, if not, you need labels for all.

 

So it would be best then to just not think about the meaning of life and all that jazz?

What about world events and other tragic things that happen in other countries? Should you just ignore those too?

As for an earlier remark...NO. I am NOT, in any capacity, contemplating suicide. Recent events have just made me think, is all.

Though I won't lie that I am a little depressed, at the moment.

 

(a) It is vitally important to think about the meaning of life.
(b) There is no reason to avoid world events and other tragic things that happen -- but you'd be silly to think they're the only things that happen in the world, or that they're even a majority.

 

I'm a straight up optimist. Life is just... life. Its awesome

 

Indeed. ****** things get on the news because they are the oddity, not the norm. man goes to work, has uneventful day, returns home isn't as grabbing as five alarm apartment fire injures two. Which one happens more often?

 

Yeah, I've never cared for it, it's just something I sometimes fall back on when questioned by religious folks about my "beliefs" (I generally don't have any). Atheism is just sorta the popular term, it's something they recognize (as teh evil, but I couldn't care less), it's just easier sometimes.

I certainly don't identify as atheist (I know I never used the term for myself until my twenties, despite it applying to my whole life), simply because I don't give a ****.

Saying I don't care is more accurate than saying I'm an atheist.

"Hey CT, what do you think about religion and spirituality? Are you a Christian, agnostic, atheist, or what?"
"Oh, I don't care."
"Yeah, but what do you think?"
"I don't."

Often it's just easier to say I'm an atheist and put an end to the topic.

I don't know if it is "best", and I can't say what you should do, but it's generally what I do. Not really because thinking about it is THE WORST THING EVER and sends me into a depression/dissociation/dissonance, but because I find the meaning of life and all that jazz...well, uninteresting, unimportant, and generally a poor waste of time.

Oh, I don't care. I'm usually the last to know, I don't follow the news at all. It's sorta sad/hilarious (depending on your pov) that I get much of my news from the JCC. Thanks for all the bad news, Juliet! And thanks to the rest of you for alerting me every time there's a shooting or whatever, otherwise I'd probably never know.

I generally ignore them, not because I should, but because I don't really care.

This doesn't just apply to world events and things happening in other countries, but things happening in my own country/state as well.

It's not that I don't have any empathy and feel no compassion for the suffering of others, far from it, I just...don't care. I certainly don't dwell on it.

How hard is it to ignore some tragedy? They happen every day, it's a big planet with like seven billion people. Odds are something bad is happening all the time. (at the same time I agree with Diggy and Saintheart that it's not the norm, major tragedy does not represent the majority of reality, imo)

"Just another tragedy, *yawn*, what else is going on? Oh hey, it's some person/movie/book/tv/video game/sport/other thing I'm actually interested in." And that's how it's done, it's just that simple.

Again, I'm not saying this is what *you* should do, it's just what I generally do. As a disclaimer I have to say I'm not advising you, it would be foolish to take advice from me.

 

Sounds like physicalism (The new, nicer context word for materialism) brought about by not being overly concerned. "Naïve physicalism" if I was trying to give you a really punchy-sounding box. That doesn't really address the optimism/pessimism axis, though, because that's either 1. a kind of psychological vaguely intuitive classification metric to describe general outlook or 2. two really not well defined philosophical traditions relating to fundamental ontological questions which nobody ITT is taking into consideration. The OP is placing a weird and unjustified emphasis on the concept IMO.

 

Thanks, Ramza!

Sounds right to me, you have given new meaning to my life. I totally bookmarked that page, even though I'll probably never read it because tl;dr.

No really, thanks.

 

Often, though, the perky happy types are overcompensating for something going on inside. There's such an awful and stupid stigma attached to depression that people often go to great lengths to hide it.

 

I'd consider myself a realist, alright? But in philosophical terms I'm what's called a pessimist... I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself - we are creatures that should not exist by natural law... We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, that accretion of sensory experience and feelings, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everbody's nobody... I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming. Stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction - one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.

 

ugh i hate optimists

 

I think life sucks and the world is full of **** but we should try to do the best with the time we have. Of course there are bad moments and it's ok to be angry and/or sad, but that shouldn't be our default state of mind. The way I see it, I got my health, good friends and time to enjoy both, so those are good things. It balances out in the end. I don't poop rainbows or prance around giddily, but I'm not an Eeyore either

 

If more people pooped rainbows the world would be a better place.

 

Froot Loops cause rainbow poop, as well.

 

Excessively happy people threaten me. It just seems like a façade.

 

I'm pretty optimistic that this thread sucks.

#amidoinitrite?

 

You know you all want to try that and see what happens.