Pessimism

December 16th, 2024

I never cared much for Schopenhauer. I found his writing muddled and boring, but I think I might want to revisit it since he is the one who started taking pessimism seriously. Not soon though, I need to take breaks between getting serious reading (and thinking). And recently I went through a binge-reading (and thinking) of so-called pessimist philosophers and thinkers. I went from Kierkegaard to Mainlander to Camus to Cioran to Fisher. I think I will allow myself some respite now.

There is nothing wrong with pessimism and being a pessimist, yet I already feel like I need to defend that particular view. So I won’t, just for spite. I guess there is still a lot of embedded Americanism in me that considers pessimism an anathema. On the other hand, I can no longer stand the constantly optimistic but infertile idiocy and impetuous naivety of Americans. Not all of them, of course, but I don't care about sweeping generalizations anymore.

Pessimism is the only reality there is. We better accept it, or the alternative is to live in a fake world surrounded by fake others like us. Of course, that choice was already made by a significant percentage of the human population. Others have no idea that there is a choice to be made, and even more of the others are too busy trying to just survive the rampant exploitation of themselves by late-stage capitalism to engage in any existential discourses.

For a while, I too daubed in fakeness of myself and my life and my thoughts. It was so easy and pleasant and comforting. I paid special attention not to see anything that could in any way damage my imaginary reality. And I paid special attention not to think anything contrary to falsification I wallowed in. Now I know better, and I know that pessimism can be intellectually stimulating and fulfilling. But I also know I want to limit the dosage of pessimism since I am prone to quick addictions.