In Praise of Pessimism
By: Paul Zienicke
Tags: Happiness, Populism, Activism, Optimism, Anxiety

(1) Pessimistic societies are less anxious

In the bookshop, next to the shelf with works like “Unlimited Power”, there is usually another set of books with much more melancholic titles, such as “Overcoming Low Self-Esteem” and “Stop Anxiety Now”. The fact that these two types of books are placed beside each other is not random — excessive optimism and self-doubt are correlated not just in the bookstore. In his 1890 work “The Principles of Psychology”, William James writes that our self-feeling “is determined by the ratio of our actualities to our supposed potentialities”. In other words, people with high hopes are more likely to be disappointed, resulting in lower self-esteem. Religions have always attempted to provide a source of consolation by taming our sky-high expectations and substituting them with a gentle attitude of pessimism. The first of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism teaches us that “life is suffering”. Likewise, the Christian doctrine of original sin stresses that the human condition is essentially flawed, and nothing else should ever be expected. In an increasingly secular world, these old narratives have been replaced by new ones. Their most prominent form, the American Dream, suggests that anyone can work their way “from rags to riches” and achieve happiness, given only virtues like industry and economy. The downside of this story is that it adopts a harsh and uncompromising attitude towards failure. People who miss the chance of climbing the social ladder or who feel unhappy get the impression that there is something particularly wrong about themselves — rather than about earthly existence in toto, as the Buddha or Augustine would have suggested. Naturally, this creates a great deal of anxiety, which can be observed in all modern societies. In fact, today we are probably more anxious and unhappy than our prehistorical ancestors, as Yuval Noah Harari proposes in “Sapiens”. In a more pessimistic world, we would anticipate failure as an inevitable part of our collective nature and relinquish the need to be happy all the time. Thus, we could direct our energies to other things than success: leading average but serene lives and building good relations to other people.

“Original sin” as an antidote to anxiety (See page for author, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

(2) Pessimistic societies are more immune against populism

This sounds odd, as we usually do not associate populists with optimism. Indeed, according to a 2020 study the supporters of populist parties in Europe preponderantly indicate to be pessimistic about the future. But if we really think about it, populism might just be optimism in an angry disguise. Populists and their supporters might be the real optimists because they believe that easy solutions exist. They think that problems are monocausal, and they are optimistic that once the cause is removed, everything will be fine. In societies immune against populism, people would be far more pessimistic. They would simply not believe leaders claiming that they can solve all their problems. People would acknowledge that political affairs are complex, and refrain from singling out scapegoats to put all the blame on.

A disguised optimist? (Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

(3) Pessimistic societies are societies of change-makers

In his 1961 parable “Die beweinte Zukunft”, the philosopher Günther Anders invites us to imagine that the apocalypse has already happened. Only from this starting point, we can get active and take the right measures to prevent the worst outcome. Anders formulated his apocalyptic approach against the backdrop of Cold War tensions. Unlike his optimistic contemporaries, he did not believe that the “balance of terror” could really prevent the outbreak of an impending atomic war. His pessimism allowed Anders to discern the real dangers of the nuclear arms race and assume that it was going to end badly — if people did not act. That pessimism can be a starting point for activism is evident today, as well. “Fridays for Future” is a movement of utopian pessimists. When Greta Thunberg says that the “house is on fire”, she does not entertain the illusion that everything is great and will turn out well. Instead, she warns us that — if we do not take the necessary measures — climate change will get out of control, and life on earth will be less bright in the future. Günther Anders and the “Fridays For Future” generation prove that a pessimistic mindset must not imply that we cannot change anything. Instead, if we use its utopian potential, pessimism can be a real catalyst for social transformation.