Curing the Diseases of Optimism and Pessimism

In relation to my previous post talking about understanding Human Nature as the centre of all general and political philosophy, I thought I would touch on two mindsets that plague us as much as ideology. The twin-opposites of Optimism and Pessimism.

Optimism is about emotional states of being including hope, wishful thinking, and at its worse fairy-tale views of the world that its always getting better.

Pessimism is its opposite, which includes hopelessness, despondency, and at its worse fatalism that the world is going to get worse.

Both lead to paralysis since at their most extreme, the world is just fine as it if you are optimist so why worry about it, or its going to hell if you are pessimist and there is nothing that can be done about it.

As soon as one accepts optimism or pessimism as their worldview, they shut themselves off from asking questions. I used to consider myself pessimistic and a cynic but after finally reading those definitions, I realized that this was not me.

My blog is about asking questions, hopefully relevant and rational questions. My goal is to find solutions, not preach optimism or pressimism. I realized that I am a skeptic.

So, perhaps this is the political philosophy that I am waiting for, one based on the principles of skepticism. Interestingly, some people have gone ahead and done just that with a new political party being formed in Australia challenging one of environmentalism’s holy cows, global warming, under the banner of The Climate Sceptics Party. Its a bold move and is sure to cause huge controversy but good skepticism is necessary for all political philosophies, including the Greens and their conviction in global warming.

I am pleased that they have been established. They have provided to the world a small but important step towards embracing skepticism as a way of viewing the political world. Perhaps, with persistence the political manifestation of skepticism can be the cure of the mental diseases of optimism and pessimism, and ultimately help us better understand our human nature.

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