Realisticly speaking...

[kensaro]

In general, you can devide the world into optimists, pessimists and realists, but there seems to be some serious contention between the different groups, and sometimes even outright animosity between them. Realists especially seem to be the ones who get the short end of the stick, mainly from the optimists. Any realistic assesment of the situtation

Comments

[khenti]

I suppose I'm a pessimist most of the time, but I honestly consider myself a realist. Especially when people are concerned, you can generally expect the worst from them and it is very, very rare that you will be wrong.

I suppose that might be the very definition of a pessimist. Heh.

[kensaro]

Ah, no that's buying in to what the optimists are trying to get you to believe.

[toob]

I think to some degree people pick up on how you expect them to behave and act accordingly.

If you expect the worst from people, you're more likely to get it. If you expect the best from people, they sense it and try harder.

PLUS, if you expect the worst from people, not only can they sense it, but you're likely to treat them differently: more negatively, bitterly, etc. And people respond poorly to that. So you'll get worse results.

I randomly smile at people, and I randomly get smiles back. It makes me feel great.

Cynicism is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we can't believe in the good things in others, those good things don't even have a fighting chance of becoming real.

[khenti]

I hear that a lot, but I don't believe it in the slightest

[toob]

There is a word for such a thing: pollyannaism.

And both optimists and pessimists think they're realists, so that third category doesn't really work.

Perhaps they both ARE realists -- it's just that optimism and pessimism are different angles from which to view the same thing.