Pessimism for Beginners
You Idiots Don’t Understand Pessimism
People ask me if I’m an optimist or a pessimist, if the glass is half full or half empty, so to speak.
“Half-empty? It’s almost fucking gone!” I like to say.
I am a confirmed pessimist, and couldn’t be different if I wanted to be, but I don’t think most people have a clear understanding of what pessimism really is. It is not simply a sour disposition or crabby attitude. It is a way of life.
On the staff picks shelf at the St. Marks Bookstore in the East Village of Manhattan, a book caught my eye by Joshua Foa Dienstag about one of my favorite subjects; myself. The scholar declares,
“The pessimist expects nothing – thus he or she is more truly open to every possibility as it presents itself…we live in a world of surprises… spontaneity… a form of self-conduct that values the life we are given in spite of the pessimistic diagnosis of its condition... In the face of great suffering, this kind of pessimist, what Nietzsche called a ‘Dionysian pessimist’ – does not retreat, but rather advances willingly into hostile territory, not to die gloriously but instead to ‘live dangerously’ and die necessarily.”
This has been my philosophy for so long, the worldview and state of mind that I put myself in when I travel and often when I do my best work. I open myself to possibilities, not expecting much, and am often pleasantly surprised by what life offers me.
“This is gonna suck” is usually my disposition when I watch a movie. If it does anything better than “suck,” then it is a relative success. The optimist who expects Iron Man 3 to be great movie will inevitably be let down and suffer the emotional consequences of that disappointment. The pessimistic approach acknowledges the poor quality of our culture, while at the same time remaining open to a pleasant surprise.
A healthy dose of skepticism provides a realistic framework for a deeper appreciation of life’s subject matter. The optimist seeks an unrealistic control over the facts of life; the milk in that proverbial glass must either be drunken and hence emptied or left unused and curdle. The glass cannot remain full, halfway or otherwise, unless it is never drunk from, or never fully experienced.
The pessimist is prepared to see the empty glass, and relishes in the experience of drinking from it without fear that his worldview will be altered at the bottom. The glass metaphor is bullshit and we all know it, but only the pessimist has the balls to admit it.
The unrealistic, controlling appraisals of the optimists have led our world toward an unsustainable energy policy and faith-based ideals that are costly in their inability to acknowledge the cold, hard facts in front of them.
We would all do well to “call bullshit” when we need to and stop pretending that “things are fine” when they so clearly are not.
The optimist dreams of having the cake and perhaps one day eating it. The pessimist devours the cake, living in the moment and hence having it forever. He also drinks the milk to go with that cake, and doesn’t worry about what the glass looks like to others.