Optimism vs. Pessimism

I never claimed Pro broke any rules by serving me a re-heated debate. The point still stands that it’s poor conduct in my opinion. I have not conceded this debate. I don’t deny now, nor have I ever denied that optimism has its benefits. My stance is that EVEN though they are equal, when it comes to the most important things pessimism is better. My stance is that when it comes to staying alive pessimism is better. If Pro felt what I said was a concession then Pro concedes when she (plagiarizes?) this quote: “Our survival and wellness require a balance between optimism and pessimism. Undue pessimism makes life miserable; however, excessive optimism can lead to dangerously risky behaviors.” https://tinyurl.com... Versus her quote “that our survival and well-being require a balance between optimism and pessimism. Undue pessimism makes life miserable, and excessive optimism can lead to dangerously risky behaviors.” By her logic I should win the debate, because she concedes that optimism isn’t better, but we need a balance. That is how she view it when I said it. Again, I’m arguing you cannot enjoy your optimism once you have used pessimism to keep you alive. So, pessimism may make you sad, but optimism makes you dead. Being alive is more important than being happy because, as I previously stated (and it has not been refuted) I have yet to meet an optimistic dead person. Pro has a broken chain I’m not going to refute Pro’s arguments point for point. All I need to do is prove that happiness, success, and health could be attributed to something other than optimism, and her argument falls apart. Pro states failed to prove that optimism causes these effects. If you did well would you be optimistic about your future? Of course, you would, and therefore success would cause your optimistic not the other way around. So I’ll address all of Pro’s claims from that point of view. Money does buy you happiness Happiness comes from getting your basic needs met and getting past the need for pessimism. The proof of this can be seen in the fact that money can buy you happiness. https://tinyurl.com... https://tinyurl.com... Money buys you happiness because it satisfies basic needs, and you can afford to move past your pessimism. Let’s compare poor countries to rich countries. When we do, we see that as a country gets richer they are happier. This has nothing to do with optimism, and everything to do with Maslow’s chart. “countries increase their GDP per capita, the more happiness levels rise... The richer people get, the more satisfied they are with their lives.” https://tinyurl.com... Most people are optimistic. “80 percent of humans are delusionally optimistic” so if optimism was the cause of happiness then there would be no difference in happiness between the rich and the poor countries. This proves that the cause of happiness is not optimism but moving up Maslow’s chart past basic needs being met. Because it’s BETTER to be a pessimist when you are addressing basic needs the most important part of life. So pessimism is better if you must choose between optimism or pessimism. https://tinyurl.com... Money makes you healthier Money makes you healthier not optimism. “The more years your parents owned their own home, the less likely you were to develop a cold.” Meaning being rich causes you to be healthier not optimism. And this is true not because of rainbows and butterflies but a laundry list of things that makes rich people have higher physical/mental health. “Better access to medical care.” “Safer homes and neighborhoods.” “eat healthier food.” “Low-income people suffer more from stress.” “ability to delay gratification.” https://tinyurl.com... Success causes optimism, pessimism causes success I’ve proven that success creates optimism. To drive the nail in the coffin I’m going to use a quote Pro seems to believe (without the need to prove because she can’t) “We can therefore assume that optimistic people are better off financially than their pessimistic peers”, and nothing could be further from the truth. Let’s look at optimism in the business world. “Studies that compare the actual outcomes of capital investment projects, mergers and acquisitions, and market entries with managers’ original expectations for those ventures show a strong tendency toward overoptimism. An analysis of start-up ventures in a wide range of industries found, for example, that more than 80% failed to achieve their market-share target.” “focus on their own company’s capabilities and plans and are thus prone to neglect the potential abilities and actions of rivals. Here, again, the result is an underestimation of the potential for negative events” https://tinyurl.com... “Affirmation feels good, but it doesn't prompt you to summon the resources and strategies to actually accomplish the task.” https://tinyurl.com... Pro wants to judge “sticking to it” as a positive trait, and that’s the reason optimists do so poorly in the business world. “If you're destined to fail, wouldn't it be better to get it over as soon as possible” the longer you draw out a loss the more time and money you waste on the business venture. https://tinyurl.com... Optimism isn’t the reason for everything… My opponent has tried several times to give optimism more power than it deserves to deflate pessimism. Statements about how we would advance because we don’t have hope, or we would just sit there and die rather than do something about it, are a trick, and nothing more. I could use this same trick to say that the only reason why people do anything is because they are scared of something bad happening if they don’t, or if we weren’t scared of dying we wouldn’t want to live. Motives are complex, and pro is attempting to boil that complexity down to the single emotion of optimism and that’s not how humans work. Pessimism isn’t depression, or anxiety, or sadness, or blah blah blah, any more than optimism is happiness, or care free, or joy. It is an expectation on what will happen. It’s little more than if a person feels lucky or not. So please don’t buy into Pro’s tricks to make optimism this great force for good in the world… it’s not. (or those poor countries wouldn’t be poor) The agreed upon definition of optimism for this debate is “people whether they expect future outcomes to be beneficial” and the definition of pessimism is “people whether they expect future outcomes to be negative”. That doesn’t equate to action for optimism any more than it equates to paralysis for pessimism. Let me show you this trick in action on the pessimism side. I would say something like: Optimists don’t appreciate people because they feel like everyone is replaceable, and that replacement will be better than what they already have, and pessimists on the other hand are the only ones who appreciate what they have, because they don’t expect to get better, and don’t want to lose it. Then I post a quote and an article “supporting” this goofy claim that isn’t really pessimism but makes it look like pessimism is the reason for you appreciate: “Seneca, for example, taught his students to remind themselves that their loved ones would one day die. The thoughts may be dark, but they can allow you to appreciate all that you have without taking it for granted.” Again it’s about what you expect to happen in the future, nothing more. Pro’s has a wide range of claims that look exactly like this, and Pro claims they are optimism when they really aren’t. https://tinyurl.com... I want to touch on the one Pro repeats a lot with this trick. Pessimism doesn’t mean you won’t go forward. Let’s take a scenario everyone should be familiar with, becoming a painter. Most people have heard that painting takes a long time to become good, and in this scenario the person believes (as they should) that they will fail at being a painter many times before becoming a master painter. Understanding that you will fail helps you to keep from getting jaded as the failures are expected. If you have tried to do anything in your life that was remotely hard there was a point where you had failed, and you expected to fail more before you achieved what you wanted to achieve. Rather than listening to Pro silken words think about that time. Did knowing that you would fail more make you depressed, or cause you to sit at home and starve to death because life wasn’t worth living? We’ve all walk away or given up on things as well, does these mean you can’t be optimistic? Of course, you can still be optimistic, and you didn’t lay down and die, so don’t fall for that rhetoric when your personal experience proves otherwise. (it’s a trick and nothing more) It is realistic pessimism that gives you the strength to get through those failures. This is one of my favorite quotes on the subject: “The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” – Stephen McCranie. Having realistic pessimistic expectations in no way prevents you from succeeding, and I’ve shown with business (and with your life) pessimism is important for success. Conclusion As I have shown most people are optimistic, and I think we all know that most people are not successful. For my opponent to attempt to have optimism as the cause for success makes no logical sense, and yet this the basis of Pro’s whole argument. For Pro to win you must accept that optimism is the cause of the traits, and Pro has not, and cannot do that. Pro agrees that pessimism is just as important as optimism, and has argued that when it comes to the top of Maslow’s chart optimism wins, I don’t contest this because I don’t disagree with it, nor do I need to. A person must walk before they run, and when it comes to the basics (as my opponent agrees) pessimism wins and optimism loses. Or to put another way once you understand you shouldn’t cuddle with a cottonmouth then you can enjoy cuddling with that boa.