Pessimism?

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Besides the enormous stress that I had to suffer from lecturing and from dealing with my colleagues, there was another reason for me to abandon teaching. My chair was officially “history of sociology”. While there is great latitude in how to treat the subject matter, you have to talk of the founders of sociology and of the following developments. Now the great theoreticians, foremost among them a German philosopher called Max Weber, had alla very bleak view of the future. I shared and I share their pessimism. Weber died at 50 right after WW1. WW1 made thirty millions dead, most young boys who where dragged in the trenches, the great majority of them forced by their states to take part in what amounted to be the deadliest civil war ever fought, preceded by the American civil war and followed by the Spanish civil war and by WW2. Atom bombs were dropped in for the first time in 1945. In human history there have always been wars and slaughters, but what strikes us is that these indiscriminate bloodlettings and destructions happen now in the framework of a unified culture, they are all civil wars. If you have to sum up the reasons for pessimism one would say that a common culture (which is the “culture” of production for the sake of production and consumption for the sake of consumption) is not an obstacle to bloody infighting and conflict, which is nourished by an growing Armageddon of means. So, what positive message can one give to young people at this point of history? I think none other than try to find peace in oneself and in intimate life, keeping in mind that destruction is around the corner and threatens us in our physical and moral survival. When I left teaching, I left also because I felt that I could not face students with my bleak vision of things.

But there was another problem that haunted me then and haunts me now. The weight of those human affairs that go beyond a restricted circle of relationships, cannot stand on our shoulders. I think that voting or participating in politics is a vain choice. The direction of short term human affairs is in the hands of soulless professionals and wan't be changed by fleeting public opinions easily manipulated by the spin doctors. And I wonder if being absorbed in pessimism is not a consequence of our depression and failure to have strong bond with people around us. Ties with people mean warmth and a better life. The more you have of this the less you have to think to the looming human catastrophes. We are built by millions of years of evolution with an overabundant capacity for enjoyment (the French word jouissance is more apt) and resilience. Resilience of all the living is incredible and is the only fact we can be allied to in some way.

Hope to be pardoned for this small bit of lecturing from afar.

Last edited by paolo on 27 Oct 2006, 1:36 am, edited 7 times in total.

My pessimism was one of the reasons I thought I should not become a therapist.(that and a distrust of many of the theories which had been attempted on me.)One of the reasons I do not have children was my dislike of society based on history.People sure can do some horrible things to one another for some very illogical reasons.I dont think that is going to change for the better for a very long time(if ever).

I used to feel a lot of pessimism but over the years I've moved up a notch towards 'realism',with hope giving some encouragement in the background.Optimism seems elusive while there is
still suffering and conflict in the world.
Then again,false optimism can lead to greater disappointment if things go wrong.
BTW Paolo,please feel free to continue lecturing us.You are very eloquent especially as
English isn't your native language !

From Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes:

And really, when boiled down to its essentials, doesn't that describe World War I? Millions of men meeting and being stupid together?

As I prefer ugly truth to any number of pleasant lies, I will be an adamant pessismist until I see human nature improving at a rate that exceeds its technological innovation.

I would agree with you, but I just can't see the point.

I've always been a pessimist ever since I was old enough to understand. I never had a reason to be optimistic even for a second. When my friends act all happy-go-lucky, I usually say: "You sure are in a good mood; where did you buy the drugs?" (implying the fact that the drugs made them happy).

In retrospect, I'd say I was optimistic growing up-had the delusion that my family was the problem, and that I'd be okay once I was old enough to escape their influence/environment. Was often unhappy as a child, motivation to keep going in life was foolish assumption my life would be vastly better once I turned 18-that I'd be liberated & appreciated. Not "all shiny & happy" as a kid, just believed that things for me could & would improve, wasn't aware that the entire world is disastrous, to some extent.
Past 15 years I've become more pessimistic, the more I learn the worse I feel. At heart, I'm both naive & cynical, one or the other predominates but it varies depending on what's foremost in my mind. I can't just be detached from all the misery, yet I have to shut it out on occasion in order to recuperate.
Any positive changes I can imagine are impossible to implement & flawed, humans (incl. myself) don't behave intelligently (polluting our planet-talk about utter irrationality !) and individuals have incompatible/competing value systems.

I've tended to see my pessimism as being realistic but these days I have noticed its quite a negative way of thinking so I try to think in a new light.

I think that optimism and pessimism depend largely from your internal state. You can be wholly convinced that “human” civilization is doomed (I am unwaveringly convinced of that) and still feel attached to something you perceive as valuable and bound to prevail. Something which is behind the history of oaks, cacti, donkeys and snakes. “ Is it up to you to establish when the wild goats have to give birth?” Asks Jehovah to Job. It’s not easy to abandon the idea of a man centred universe; the book of Job is a splendid poetic exhortation to put life (undomesticated life) about anything else. And you can find the same ideas in Chuang-tzu and in the Tao.

If you want to find the wrong in life then thats what you will find. Be realistic - the balance of the 2.. I used to be pessismistic and never noticed when something went my way.. Now I focus when things go my way and I've honestly felt better

I think some of you are thinking of pessimism as the mood versus the pessimistic worldview, which can be quite enlightening and affirming.

One of my favorite pessimists is Arthur Schopenhauer. Read his "On The Sufferings of the World" and see what you think:

http://www.jsmcgraw.com/philosophy/onthesufferingsoftheworld.htm

Recognizing that endings occur is not necessarily pessimism. Death follows birth, winter follows summer. The end of the status quo will only be a tragedy to those who love the status quo. Some things will endure for a time, and new things will begin.

Culture is far older than civilization, and without our electronic toys, people might once again remember how to sing and make music themselves. Without books, people will once again learn to tell stories. Without technology, we may once again understand the things that surround us in our lives.

Something of humanity may survive, and life will have meaning between the earth and the sky.
I recently read of mitochondral DNA extracted from the fossil bones of a neanderthal toddler who once ran laughing after butterflies. Firelight threw flickering orange light across the mammoth bone structure of the skin tent as her parents sat beside her as she died and could not help her. Which life has a deeper meaning?

Later, there will come a time when we are gone, and the night wind that whispers through the trees will not mourn our passing.