What is the point of active pessimism? — Marchesk
Me, I'd rather drink a beer and pass the time doing something half-way enjoyable or interesting. — Marchesk
The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
I'm just saying - doesn't an 'active pessimism' betray... pessimism? — StreetlightX
You can't lose if you don't play. — The Great Whatever
But I think a thoroughgoing pessimism voids the effects of any prescription – it doesn't matter what you do, and not in a meta-prescriptive sense that you 'ought not' to do anything, either. So what we have is an observation about these men, not a criticism of them. If pessimism has truth to it, these observations cease to be interesting. — The Great Whatever
Isn't pessimism 'worse' than nihilism, in its valuation of the world? It seems that the pessimist is yet more extreme than the nihilist in the extent to which he voids the relevance of such observations. — The Great Whatever
Unless your view is that some sort of activity can lessen the poor quality of the world, despite its being in some way fundamentally or irreparably bad. I'm not quite sure of that, largely because I believe that humans are animals that aren't smart enough to figure out how to make things better. But it's a logical possibility. — The Great Whatever
What I still hold on to though is the fact that the world can be improved without being fully good. There's no need for a good outcome to act in the right way. Getting a C+ on a test is better than an F. — darthbarracuda
So my contention is just that people don't have the skills to improve the world in that way - they're too stupid. — The Great Whatever
So my contention is just that people don't have the skills to improve the world in that way - they're too stupid. — The Great Whatever
So I focus more on non-human animal welfare, those residents of the Earth that are continually neglected and forgotten about. — darthbarracuda
Hell, even penguins are known to commit suicide. — darthbarracuda
So I see a disoriented penguin in Herzog's film. — apokrisis
Active, purpose-driven pessimism eschews aesthetic comfort and decadence for a prescription to end the problem once and for all. This entails participating in and supporting public institutions focused on maximizing welfare and making the world a better place, and actively advocating pessimistic philosophies, within the constraints of self-preservation. — darthbarracuda
No, I'm not excluding us in saying that. I really don't know what to do to be happy etc. I simply don't understand my own body or psychology well enough, and so I stay miserable because I seriously don't understand what to do not to be. — The Great Whatever
To be fair a lot of those 'comfortable pessimists' espoused anti-natalistism, something which really would 'end the problem once and for all' once implemented. Neither Schopenhauer, the Buddha, nor Emil Cioran had children. — dukkha
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