Martin LeFevre: Beyond Optimism and Pessimism

Optimists and pessimists pose a dilemma for philosophers, and for humankind Is the world getting better, or growing worse? And does one’s attitude toward the future largely determine the future?

In terms of a person’s disposition, the truth of the matter is secondary. To be a pessimist is to believe that the future will be just like the past, only worse. To be an optimist is to believe that things are improving, and that humankind is progressing. Which way it actually is matters only to philosophers.

But as a philosopher, I would submit that both matter. We need to continually question in order to see things as they are, and we also need to retain an optimistic attitude, and be as positive and hopeful toward the future as possible.

Even so, if the Titanic is sinking, only fools run around rearranging the deck chairs for morning. So the question is: In point of fact then, is the Titanic sinking?

Irrefutably yes. Humankind is destroying the earth and itself, even as our technology continues to grow.

There is no true hope as long as people don’t see things as they are. That’s why as long as Barack Obama does not see and at least implicitly acknowledge the social and spiritual depression that grips this country, he does not represent genuine hope for the future.

One’s worldview need not be determined by conditioning, wishful thinking, or an optimistic or pessimistic nature. It is possible, and desirable, to see the world as it is. And it’s urgently necessary, because we cannot meet the crisis of humanity until and unless we see it as it is.

That said, one’s essential orientation toward the future is perhaps an individual’s most basic characteristic. The pessimist sees the past, present, and future as unfolding in a bad way, and is called, pejoratively, ‘negative’. The optimist sees ‘the glass half full,’ and feels that things are getting better, not worse.

But the idea that the glass is either half empty or half full is a childish cliché, not an adult perception. Proponents of seeing the glass half full are almost always ‘see no evil, hear no evil’ types who try to impose their view on others.

Therefore optimists--people who cheerily and blithely believe that things are OK with the world as long as things are OK with themselves--can and often do a great deal of the harm in the world. Pessimists often stay out of public debate and activity, precisely because they are pessimistic about the possibility that their efforts can make any real difference.

‘Positive thinking’ is negative acting when people refuse to see and deal with things as they are. Thus optimism often covers a great deal of darkness and evil.

In the United States, we just had eight years’ experience with false and forced optimism, and the country may never recover from it. George Bush was always preaching optimism, even after he invaded Iraq and made it the most hellish place on earth.

It’s interesting to contrast the defunct ideology of communism, and the recently collapsed ideology of capitalism. (By communism, I’m referring to Marxism/Leninism/Stalinism, not socialism; by capitalism I’m referring to largely American economic beliefs and practices, not markets themselves.)

Communism was an optimistic ideology in that it emanated out of a belief in the perfectibility of man. Marx saw the human future in terms of an economic progression in which ownership and the levers of power, which have historically been in the hands of the few, are taken over by workers, or proletariat, who will then own and control societies supposedly for the better.

Ironically, communism produced the most repressive social systems the world has ever known. Lenin, and even more so Stalin, were willing to kill and imprison millions of their own people, indeed enslave their entire nation for the sake of their ideals, and ultimately merely their power.

Capitalism, on the other hand, has the Christian idea of original sin at its core. It sees humans as essentially selfish, inexorably and immutably driven by the personal profit motive. That provides a good rationale for screwing thy neighbor.

It’s obviously a more accurate view of human nature, but the profit motive as primary is making the earth, and human society, increasingly desolate.

Like a huge ship that rights itself one last time before going down, America has superficially rebalanced itself after the spiritual and social collapse of the early ‘90’s manifested in the financial collapse at the end of Bush’s second term. That gives fools and apologists one last gasp at plausible denial.

Barack Obama, embodying a bubble of false hope, has blown the biggest bubble of all—staking the solvency of the US government itself on a policy of saving gluttonous financial monstrosities deemed too big to fail.

But the jig is up. Only right wing conservatives and first generation immigrants believe in the American dream anymore. Both Russian communism and American capitalism have collapsed. The question for any serious thinker is: What will take their place?

There is a vacuum, and anything can step into a vacuum—good, or evil. Which way things go will not be determined by a pessimistic or optimistic attitude, but by whether enough people work to see and understand what is.

- Martin LeFevre is a contemplative, and non-academic religious and political philosopher. He has been publishing in North America, Latin America, Africa, and Europe (and now New Zealand) for 20 years. Email: martinlefevre@sbcglobal.net. The author welcomes comments.

© Scoop Media