The Wisdom of Pessimism

Pessimism is generally equated with a grumpy and immature kind of mood. But it is in fact at the origin of wisdom – and can even leave us feeling surprisingly cheerful.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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CREDITS

Produced in collaboration with Claudio Salas

[benaaronmusic]

"Always expect the worst, but celebrate when the best happens" -Ben Aaron

[thomedwards]

"I consider myself a realist, alright, but in philosophical terms, I'm what's called a pessimist." - Rust Cohle.

[Bingbongq]

Optimism hurts when something ends up going bad and pessimism feels great when something ends up going good

[AnotherGradus]

Top tier animation & design by Claudio Salas-- I mean, sure, _School of Life_ consistently has excellent aesthetics-- but this was exceptional.

[mangosteen]

"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing i know" - Hemingway.

[UnorthodoxlyEsthetic]

The worst recipe is a pessimistic realistic dreamer

A person who wants certain dreams and ambitions to come true which are totally realistic

But unsure if they can do it themselves

[coyhampton]

I am a Realist and examine everything as objectively as I can. People always label me as a Pessimist.

[molon___labe]

Crazy thing is I was incredibly depressed when I thought everything was great and thought positively. Now being more of a realist than a pessimist I have never felt more in control and better about my life. Bad stuff happens to everyone in the world it’s how you deal with it that makes you depressed or not.

[gspahr]

Thank you, I can relate to this. The nice thing about being pessimistic is that when things turn out for the best (or almost) it's so much more satisfying.

[bolivar]

There is nothing more depressing than positive thinking. To bring yourself to think deeply and clearly, without shying away from the outcome is hard enough. So why am I supposed to add an extra effort to this, an enormous effort to delude myself permanently, to make it all look positive?
I have a very beloved friend who had the most loving mother and the most supportive father and she says she had a dream-like childhood which is wonderful. But she is the most frustrated and depressed person I know. She very mistakenly took that beautiful episode of her life as life itself and she is still looking for it everywhere now and can't find it.
There is a caricature I once have seen, of an incredibly cute little puppy. He escapes from home where he was being looked after by humans. He finally wants to be free in nature! So he runs away from home, walks for hours in the woods and finally finds a wolf and says:

- Excuse me brother, could you tell me where I can find the plates filled with food in here?

Poor thing, he won't survive...

The same with us of course. I am not saying that we won't find goodness and generosity in the world. But always keeping in mind also the worst, helps you to be prepared at all times and makes you value goodness even more, when you find it.

About our expectations from ourselves:

I think you can be much more serene and therefore brave, if you are humbled by the fact that failure is a fundamental part of human experience. It also makes you kinder and more compassionate towards others, since you don't see anyone as a looser anymore. They tried and failed, just the way you also tried and failed in other occasions.

Here is a little list that may help if you find this way of seeing the world consoling:

1. There is a wonderful speech by Alain de Botton called Pessimism. I have heard it several times, it's full of wisdom and it's very funny as always.

2. If you search on google for " BBC The advantages of pessimism" you will find another great speech by Alain. Just 10 minutes. But you'll learn a lot. I especially love this part where he talks about Blaise Pascal' s book Pensees:

"In seductive classical French, he informs us that happiness is an illusion. "Anyone who does not see the vanity of the world is very vain himself, " he says. Misery is the norm, he states: "If our condition were truly happy we should not need to divert ourselves from thinking about it." And we have to face the desperate facts of our situation head on. "Man's greatness, " he writes, "comes from knowing he is wretched."

3. Barbara Ehrenreich gave a speech at The School of Life on Optimism. That's on youtube too.

Here is the description of the speech.

"Far from making us happier, she argues that undue optimism and a fear of giving bad news sowed the seeds for the banking crisis – and that an insistence on being cheerful actually leads toward a lonely focus inwards and to political apathy.
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of fourteen best selling books. "

She also has a book called:
"Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled American and the World"

4. Talking about expectations, there is a great documentary by Alain called " Seneca on Anger". There is a wonderful scene there where Alain is trying to teach a van driver to be more pessimistic. It is so funny and wise. Don't miss it!


( Thanks a lot for this wonderful lesson. The animation is also amazing! )

[pandukawb]

This is indeed an eye opener for me.
I've been a pessimist in my entire life and this is a pass for me to continue being pessimist

Happiness = reality / expectations; this sums up everything.

[buckowens]

Optimist: “The glass is half full”
Pessimist: “The glass is half empty”
Realist: “The glass has some water in it”
Me: “Who the fuck left this glass of water on the table”

[wayfarerpg]

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst....

[patrickcarbajal]

"and that's okay." Favorite ending line ever.

[mellowyellow]

im a pessimist and im happy. why do all people think that pessimists are depressed ?
everyone of my friends thought I was optimistic until they got to know me

[adrijenie]

wait a minute. if if we reduce expectation, then we will not be happy. i think the correct equation is so if we reduce expectation. then we will be more happy.

[Goettel]

Maybe it's my in-born pessimism, but I didn't expect TSoL to reach this level of awesomeness.

[rickardcarlsson]

I could almost not focus on the content of the narration because of the truly beautiful art.

[farrahsmoan]

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO. Everyone in my class thinks that I just have no emotions and that I hate everyone and everything purely because I'm a pessimist. Pessimistic: tending to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen. Not a characteristic of someone who is always grumpy and hates everything.

[tmalonso]

What about learning to be optimistic without developing attachments to the outcomes?