On Pessimism and New Zealand

“This country is going to the dogs” What does this actually mean? Statements about dogs are usually negative, …you know ….things like dog tucker and dogs breath. On the contrary philosophers are usually positive. The glaring exception is that Prince of pessimism, Schopenhauer. He was best known for his pessimistic philosophy that human beings are simply manifestations of their own egotistical wills. He spent most of his life not getting on with other people. The ultimate irony was that his best friend was his dog. Pessimism and dogs are therefore philosophically inseparable.

A couple of years ago it was the year of the dog for the Chinese, and in deference to them
I mention Sirius or “The Dog Star” the brightest star in the constellation Alpha Canis Major.
This reference to stars brings me in a rather shaggy dog fashion to another star Ed Murrow.
In quoting Shakespeare he said “The fault dear Brutus does not lie in our stars, but is in ourselves.” Now that’s a remarkable insight. This is the real truth about the proposition under debate.

So Will was saying that the problem is not out there……………It’s in here!!
My latest book is about pessimists. It’s entitled “Is it just me or has everything turned to shit”
You can see that I lack Shakespeare’s eloquence

When we look at pessimists there is a toxic brew of passivity and victimhood. There’s a fear of the future and the unknown. A comfort in the past. Pessimists crave security.

Security and dynamism are polar opposites. To achieve a dynamic future you have to surrender some of your security. For success you have to take risks and accept some failures. You hear pessimists saying "Life isn’t fair." "I don’t deserve this." "Why me?" They want to blame something or someone. When the pessimist complains of unfairness, they reveal an underlying irrational belief that life has to be fair.

The optimist expects no fairness. Optimists display a creative openness to possibilities. An optimist could never say “this country is going to the dogs” ……..and mean it.

My day job is being a doctor. I’m actually a very contented doctor but I need to declare that I have an incurable problem………….Optimism. I have to be because I see people with major health problems. I make diagnoses I therefore have grave concerns for the health of our opponents in this debate. What bothers me is their pessimism. I need to issue a health warning
This kind of thinking can seriously shorten your life.

How do I know.? I look to a group of Kentucky nuns for my evidence. Back in the 1930s a group young nuns was asked to write short biographies. These essays were archived and forgotten about. 60 years later researchers analysed the essays in terms of emotional content. Things like hope, love, happiness and general enthusiasm were consiodered markers for optimism.
The results of the research were absolutely staggering. Optimists outlived pessimists by ten years!!

Bertrand Russell summed it all up by saying "Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do."

Statements like “this country is going to the dogs” are likely to have a negative impact on our health irrespective of whether the statement is true or not. By the way it’s not true

Did you know that there are three times the number of words for negative emotions as there are for the positives? Negative emotions are associated with an urge to act in a specific way.
If you have anger you are more likely to attack. If you are unlucky enough to come across a sabre toothed tiger, you’d better get out of Dodge pretty damned quickly. This situation engenders the appropriate reaction of fear and the repertoire of thoughts that you have is very narrow. These are basic survival responses.

Positive emotions can’t be explained in such an easy way. From an evolutionary perspective joy, gratitude, serenity and optimism don’t seem to be as necessary for survival as the negative emotions. It’s no use thinking about a cheeky Pinot or a beautiful sunset if there’s a bloody great bear eying you up as an entrée. However there’s lots of evidence that people experiencing positive emotions have a wider repertoire of thoughts. Joy makes you want to play, love encourages close relationships.

If you are married you live four years longer than if you’re not. If you have a pet, your waist size is smaller, your cholesterol is lower and you’re less likely to be depressed. If people deem that this country is going to the dogs then the proposition implies an inevitable drift towards some kind of doom laden destiny.

Our best shot at survival requires two things, the first is that human constructive tendencies can counter human destructive tendencies and secondly that human beings can act on the basis of long-term considerations, rather than short-term needs and desires.

A dear friend of mine had cancer of the bowel. He needed to have half his bowel out to cure the problem. His response? “Better a semi-colon than a full stop”

John Milton told us “The mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven”

So is this country going to the dogs, like all clichés there is a mathematical possibility that it could be true? BUT if life is indeed a pile of shit, then we will be putting a damn good shine on that particular turd.