On July 4th, 2011, I went to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Unlike most who have seen the movie, I managed to enjoy it. Part of that was watching Megatron get shot through the face, a moment I had admittedly anticipated with baited breath since I was eight years old. Broken robot countenances aside, I managed to enjoy the movie because I maintain a strong position of what I call pessimistic hope.
Pessimism, as I'm sure you all know, is the general belief that things are going to go pretty shitty.
Hope, as I'm sure you all know, is the general feeling that things are going to go pretty well.
The casual reader may be tempted to say that the two would mix about as well as English colonization and pretty much any indigenous people, but they're surprisingly helpful when held in tandem. As a matter of fact, I would argue that they only really accomplish their goals when they're put together.
If someone is always pessimistic about everything, he or she is bound to find very little pleasure and to enjoy even less of it. Even when a genuine pessimist finds and enjoys a bit of pleasure, their overriding tendency is to waste the moment in consideration of how briefly they will probably be able to enjoy that pleasure. These are the people who don't want to get Mexican food, spend eighteen hours deciding what to order, and then complain the whole time they're eating that even though they love their food, it will make them sick later in the evening.
In contrast, a man or woman who goes about his or her life always hopeful about everything and everyone eventually getting better, is quite simply bound to be disappointed most of the time. If we expect too much of people, they will always let us down. Even if we expect less than normal from people, they're still pretty good on the whole at letting us down even more. These obsessively hopeful, optimistic persons are bound to tell you that "El Sombrero Rojo" has the best cheese dip ever. These are also the people who fail to tell you that they got an F on their health inspection. Furthermore, these are the people who tell you that the hours you spent sick were really worth it because the place had such a good bit of character.
While these poor souls rest in their respective miseries, the man or woman who adopts pessimistic hope is able to enjoy almost any scenario. The basic method, as I practice it, is as follows:
1) Try to figure out what the most reasonable and likely worst case scenario is in any given situation.
2) Assume that worst case scenario will happen.
3) Once you've got that firmly in your mind, let yourself hope that something better will happen. The crucial thing here is not to hope that the worst case scenario doesn't happen, because then if it does you're screwed. Rather, hope that something minimally pleasant like spotting an adorable kitten will happen to you while a team of KGB agents forces you to watch the Twilight movies on repeat.
4) Allow yourself to be genuinely surprised when the worst case scenario doesn't happen. Enjoy this moment, relish in it. Watch Megatron's face get blown to pieces.
The bottom line is that you maintain the pessimist perspective, so that if shit really goes down, you're not surprised in the slightest by how poorly things have gone. However, since you've let yourself hope that something good will happen, you will be both ready and able to enjoy when it does.
Yes, it means that you end up watching movies with subtitles like Dark of the Moon, but it also means that when Optimus Prime pistol-whips a 20 ton villain, you're able, ready, and willing to be surprised by how not-awful that moment is.
It's been wonderful,
-J.R.M.C.
Pessimism, as I'm sure you all know, is the general belief that things are going to go pretty shitty.
Hope, as I'm sure you all know, is the general feeling that things are going to go pretty well.
The casual reader may be tempted to say that the two would mix about as well as English colonization and pretty much any indigenous people, but they're surprisingly helpful when held in tandem. As a matter of fact, I would argue that they only really accomplish their goals when they're put together.
If someone is always pessimistic about everything, he or she is bound to find very little pleasure and to enjoy even less of it. Even when a genuine pessimist finds and enjoys a bit of pleasure, their overriding tendency is to waste the moment in consideration of how briefly they will probably be able to enjoy that pleasure. These are the people who don't want to get Mexican food, spend eighteen hours deciding what to order, and then complain the whole time they're eating that even though they love their food, it will make them sick later in the evening.
In contrast, a man or woman who goes about his or her life always hopeful about everything and everyone eventually getting better, is quite simply bound to be disappointed most of the time. If we expect too much of people, they will always let us down. Even if we expect less than normal from people, they're still pretty good on the whole at letting us down even more. These obsessively hopeful, optimistic persons are bound to tell you that "El Sombrero Rojo" has the best cheese dip ever. These are also the people who fail to tell you that they got an F on their health inspection. Furthermore, these are the people who tell you that the hours you spent sick were really worth it because the place had such a good bit of character.
While these poor souls rest in their respective miseries, the man or woman who adopts pessimistic hope is able to enjoy almost any scenario. The basic method, as I practice it, is as follows:
1) Try to figure out what the most reasonable and likely worst case scenario is in any given situation.
2) Assume that worst case scenario will happen.
3) Once you've got that firmly in your mind, let yourself hope that something better will happen. The crucial thing here is not to hope that the worst case scenario doesn't happen, because then if it does you're screwed. Rather, hope that something minimally pleasant like spotting an adorable kitten will happen to you while a team of KGB agents forces you to watch the Twilight movies on repeat.
4) Allow yourself to be genuinely surprised when the worst case scenario doesn't happen. Enjoy this moment, relish in it. Watch Megatron's face get blown to pieces.
The bottom line is that you maintain the pessimist perspective, so that if shit really goes down, you're not surprised in the slightest by how poorly things have gone. However, since you've let yourself hope that something good will happen, you will be both ready and able to enjoy when it does.
Yes, it means that you end up watching movies with subtitles like Dark of the Moon, but it also means that when Optimus Prime pistol-whips a 20 ton villain, you're able, ready, and willing to be surprised by how not-awful that moment is.
It's been wonderful,
-J.R.M.C.
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