Healthy optimism
Optimism, pessimism, those are never healthy. They cloud your view of the truth, and make you assume that you know what you don’t.
So if a pilot is in a failing aeroplane and is coming down for a landing that he knows is almost certainly going to lead to death. Having a more optimistic view of the situation is always bad? What about the people on the plane that are either going to die instantly or live, why be scared beforehand.
One of my favourite quotes is:
“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation.”
And this brings me back to optimism. How many times have you watched a sports game where it was shut out and over then in the dying minutes of the game you see a team win it and the commentators will say something like “no one thought that was possible, except for the men on the pitch and at the end of they day that’s all that matters”
I can’t believe I’m defending optimism because I’m thr least optimistic person in the world.
I can’t believe I’m defending optimism because I’m thr least optimistic person in the world.
I’m defending realism even if I’m extremely pessimistic, so… welcome to the club.
So if a pilot is in a failing aeroplane […]
From the pilot’s PoV, both optimism and pessimism mean the potential loss of the tiny chance of survival - one because it underestimates the effort necessary to achieve the desired result, another for giving it up. While realism is the option that actually allows you to seize that chance, and say “we’re probably fucked, but I can increase my odds of survival with my effort”.
From the passengers’ PoV: if they know that the plane will crash, and can’t realistically do anything about it, optimism means wasting their likely last moments of life. While realism means accepting “I’m going to die in a few moments; better grab the gorgonzola from my bag and enjoy it, I probably won’t be able to gift it to my cousin. Komm, Susser Tot!”
And this brings me back to optimism. How many times have you watched a sports game
I don’t watch sports, but I think that what I said still applies: optimism leading to less effort than the necessary to win, pessimism leading to giving up, realism leads to a cold analysis of the situation and what should be done to get the best result.
I’m especially cynical when it comes to the “cure all human diseases” part.
You want to manage a disease. Make it tolerable and survivable. That way, you’ve got a patient customer for life, and you can milk them for decades.
Edit: I’m talking from the point of view of an asshole capitalist, folks.
He isn’t wrong, but the pathways is by taxing the absolute fuck out of billionaires
It’s delusional. The problems we have are not caused by lack of technology and cannot be solved by new technology.
I’m sure we could do all of these things if we weren’t biased towards consolidating power into the hands of a few biased individuals.
Of course, I’m just quoting Fourth International Posadist rhetoric, but Posadas may have a point.
I can confidently say we won’t do any of these things until we can kill capitalism and trends towards autocracy.
I can confidently say we won’t do any of these things until we can kill capitalism and trends towards autocracy.
So basically never. The appetite of the regular person to revolt is nonexistent, unfortunately.
Never is a long time. The common people are tiring of what capitalism has wrought and the ongoing drive to force people to do more for less and discard those who are sufficiently useful. Our appetite to revolt may well be fueled by this push. A greater danger is the tendency for successful revolutions to turn into serial dictatorships, each overthrowing the previous one until everyone is dead tired of war. France took around a century to sort itself out from monarchy, and today is still capitalist.
On the other hand, the climate crisis might drive us to extinction, and if it doesn’t, is estimated (by the few who dare to estimate it) to reduce the population to below 500 million. If we end up migrant tribes again, we might be able to tackle the trends towards feudalism early.
And the climate crisis is not the only great filter we’re being confronted with. Personally, I don’t hope anymore so much as look soberly at where we are now and try to guess at where we’ll go. And for now the best we can do in the US is hope we can obstruct and delay the steady march towards autocratic fascism until the desperados running the Republican party can’t keep it together anymore.
I know that’s not inspiring, but if someone is saying something to inspire us, they’re taking us for marks.
