I am surprised you would have the gall to "say" what the optimist would do when your every breath is consumed with pessimism... and by the way for the record "Optimism is much better than pessimism " ...I was not confusing pessimism with depression as that is two things light years apart.. I scoff at your insolent ignorance..or maybe you are way smarter than I think and there is a prescription pill to make a pessimist a optimist.. Whew Doggy Zinaval you better get off that horse or you are going to have a hard fall!!
I find it odd that half of this country whines whines whines about all the bad things in America and the other half whether rich or poor are proud and happy to be Americans. I usually have fifty dollars and a roof over my head and food to eat so I KNOW I am richer than over half of the World..United States of America the greatest land of opportunity for those that wish to participate.
I think its a good thing to talk about things that need fixing but when people talk the talk but don't walk the walk, most of us just write them off as hypocrites.. Rosie and Al Gore are at the top of that list..
The ship is heading for icebergs, and trying to steer away from them is being called mutiny. Admitting that the course isn't perfect to begin with is whining?
In your content life where you have fifty dollars and a roof over your head, a suggestion of improving it, threatens your sense of contentment. To me, you're carrying you contentment as though you're afraid of breaking it.
In ten years, if you have ten dollars and a roof that leaks, you're going to say you're still better off than people in a refugee camp, and that those saying we ought to improve this are just whiners.
In fifteen when you're in a refugee camp and have fifty cents you're going to say you're better off than the half of humanity that has died, and why are these whiners saying that things haven't bottomed out?
At least you could always say you don't whine, (except about liberals) but who is really paralyzed with fear?
Now, that was taking it the pessimistic route.
For something more optimistic: If you're dead set against whining about having fifty dollars and a roof, I'll say that only the person who whines about having only fifty bucks will ever have seventy-five.
Discontent is good. At least as good as greed in driving an economy.
A lesson from history: 16th century Spain went from the leading power in the world to an impoverished backwater in a single generation. The leading super-power in the world can be mismanaged into a rump state.
Optimists look at the sunny side of things and if they have 50 bucks in their pocket and live in America they are thinking how to work hard and turn that 50 into a hundred and the hundred into two hundred and so on. Also a Optimist will find other solutions to issues on their own without whining about it.
A pessimist will look at that 50 and say" "Damn I am almost broke might as well go on a drunk"!!!and a pessimist doesn't find solutions
As far as the libs I understand the dilemma they are in with a President they don't like and the fact he just doesn't do what they want no matter how much they whine.. Have some cheese with that whine.
Again, if you fail to approach troubles and listen when they're pointed out, you're going to lose that fifty ultimately. How can you invest it well?
The dilemma I have with the president is not as you describe: he has crawled under the lowest expectations I had about him. His "optimistic" approach to Iraq has been an unmitigated disaster at every turn. Why? Because the Iraqis were supposed to love us and thank us for liberating them. That is dumb amateurism, and it was the kind of optimism that can only be explained with arrogance. Perhaps not from Bush, but from the guys who connived the invasion.
In a way, you're right, he won't do what I want: like be competent.
Approaching and listening to troubles does nothing if you don't do something about them. Like I said a optimist does something and a pessimist whines. If the pessimist says "I am almost broke so I will go on a drunk" they also think they are approaching their troubles and listening, but in fact they only listen to themselves and do nothing about their troubles and everything becomes worse.
What may seem competant to many may also seem crazy to others..
"... I'll go on a drunk." Or, in fact, drink till you're dead because you're so optimistic you feel you're indestructible.
Or as is the case now, go on a spending spree, on unsecured credit at twelve percent compounded interest. It's optimistic to think you could pay it back.
But the same irresponsibility can be driven by pessimism: you could expect yourself to be dead in six months, or the entire economy to collapse within the decade.
Or on a national basis, run up huge deficits without a plan of paying them off, invade countries on the other side of the world expecting to be welcomed as liberators and have democracy settle in, or let the dollar fall till it's equal to a peso on the world market.
What would be the rational thing, stop the spending and stop the over-reach. That's neither optimistic nor pessimistic. In practical terms, it would mean cutting government benefits and bringing the troops home over a course of three years, before so many of them are crippled and maimed that we assure that we can't recover from this.
Tell me, the guy in the watch station on a ship, when he spots the iceberg, is he an optimist or a pessimist? If he's drunk, as people on watch occasionally are, isn't he optimistic that the ship won't strike an iceberg on his watch?
When the ship strikes the iceberg, is he an optimist to man the pumps or the lifeboats?
Optimism isn't better than pessimism. What you're thinking of with pessimism is depression or despondency. You shouldn't equate caution to pessimism to depression. Optimism unchecked is simply mania, no matter how it's justified.
I am surprised you would have the gall to "say" what the optimist would do when your every breath is consumed with pessimism... and by the way for the record "Optimism is much better than pessimism " ...I was not confusing pessimism with depression as that is two things light years apart.. I scoff at your insolent ignorance..or maybe you are way smarter than I think and there is a prescription pill to make a pessimist a optimist.. Whew Doggy Zinaval you better get off that horse or you are going to have a hard fall!!
Yes, how dare I disagree with such a superior intellect.
Scoffing indicates that you're the one infested with arrogance, especially when you feel entitled to your "indisputable" point of view. When you're given a different line of reasoning, with a few things you probably never thought of, you then respond by making an attack on me.
It certainly looked like you were putting pessimism together with depression and despondency. Simply because you've set up pessimism as a disease. Is that what offended you? Is that the reason for the rant? It doesn't take any gall to point out how it looked.
For a general approach to life, neither optimism nor pessimism are particularly rational. You're supposed to observe first and then decide whether something is going to get better or worse, and if you could make it better or worse. Most important thing, don't be pessimistic nor optimistic till you've looked and decided.
Generally optimistic nor pessimistic. About this country: I'm a pessimist right now. Though I'm more optimistic since the Republicans got drubbed in the election.
I've thought of things that could be done to prevent calamity-- but optimists like you don't want to hear it. In 10 years, maybe I'll become optimistic about it.
I'm pessimistic about the environment. I myself can't think of what to do. I think it's going to be as bad or worse than anyone things, and until calamity hits, there will be no effective efforts to improve it.
Here's what I'm optimistic about:
I'm optimistic that prostitution is going to be decriminalized.
I'm optimistic that Islamic Radicals are going to be defeated.
I'm optimistic that cancer and many other diseases are going to be stopped or cured.
I'm optimistic that we will find other planets with life.
I'm optimistic that we are probably going to have people in space, though
I'm optimistic generally about the wonders of computers and the internet.
And I'm optimistic about myself (usually) and my friends (always), and my family (usually).
BTW, I've never ridden I high horse. Most people haven't. Couldn't you have resorted to a curse that was a little more up to date? " . . . or someday the airbag in your Lexus is going to fail in a head on?"
Okay, not so good. But the point is: work on it.
I do agree your 7 things you are optimistic about make sense although we already have people in space if you make the grade or if you have the bucks.Some things we definitely disagree on is I am certainly optimistic about this country as we do have a system of checks and balances and I just don't think anyone will get enough control to really hurt us..I'm not too worried about the environment as I don't think we have enough years of coal and oil to send us past the point of no return environmentally.I don't buy exotic Rain Forest wood and I don't have a sprinkler system and I don't drive a Lexus. I don't even enter in the grass planting competition in my neighborhood.. As matter of fact I have never riddden in a Lexus. I don't need a Big truck or a Fancy car to prop myself up. I want to make one thing perfectly clear Zinaval is I do think you think of yourself as up on that high horse...Why you ask? Because I read your posts full of so many words but so little substance.
I can only see your words and tell you what they make me think about you.
Word-to-substance ratio as a measure of being on a high horse. Interesting way to bolster that old, lazy, thoughtlessly written cliche. I don't drive a Lexus either. I think you missed my meaning.
I don't write things that don't have substance, and there's a big difference between having no substance and having substance that you reject.
Checks and balances can be subverted. The Roman Republic had lots of checks and balances, too. It's not a unique strategy of government we came up with, and it's why Ben Franklin thought the US would end in despotism no matter how good the constitution was.
Poor Ben. What a pessimist.
One way to delay what Franklin foresaw is to maintain the checks and balances. Giving the President more power right now does not maintain it.
Fortunately most Americans know nothing of war, nor hopefully they never will. William T. Sherman said “War is Hell” and he was right. Americans live in the greatest, freest country that the world has ever know. No other County, or City State, of our geographic size has ever existed as free as we are, for as long as we have existed.
It is my analysis that the radical Moslem definition of Freedom of Religion is that everyone is free to be a Moslem or, if not, then they should be killed. It is also my analysis that we have two choices; we can either fight the radical Moslems in the Middle East or we can fight them within our country on the streets of New York, Miami, Kearney NB, etc . Given that choice I’d rather be playing an away game than a home game.
I return to my original statement - Thank God Americans know nothing of war and if we can continue to play an away game, perhaps they never will.
A veteran from the years 1965 - 1970 - God Bless America! - Will
You’re welcome; Think nothing of it; My pleasure to serve my Country