Optimism* is the root of all evil.
Optimists tend to start wars.
Pessimists, accepting they could face defeat,
do not advance. Though they often retreat.
Optimists think “higher, faster”.
They believe, “It can be done!”
Pessimists ponder, “Four balls? A walk?”
Optimists think, “I'll hit a homerun.”
The optimist knows if you can conceive it,
there is no reason you cannot achieve it.
there is no reason you cannot achieve it.
The pessimist reasons existence is cursed;
despite intentions you might make things worse.
Had pessimists “won” we’d be still in the trees,
swinging and free from most modern unease.
To be candid, Candide’s can-do att-i-tude
had to win out. We are so screwed.
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*Hitler was the most unabashed doe-eyed optimist of the last hundred years. That’s why he was the biggest monster....[E]very morning, Adolf Hitler woke up, made himself a cup of coffee, and asked himself how to make the world a better place....Mao? Optimist. Stalin? Optimist. Pol Pot? Optimist....[N]o matter where you happen to live or when you happen to be born, when someone rises up and promises that things are going to be better, run. Hide. Pessimists don’t build gas chambers.— Shalom Auslander, Hope: A Tragedy