As an early teen, I was disturbed that society puts so much emphasis on optimism. Many inspirational speakers justify this by saying thoughts and attitudes are the only things we can control in dreadful circumstances. However, this does not explain why we should control them in a positive direction. After all, there are many things we can control yet choose not to control, and that’s totally fine.
For example, let’s say Amy from a town in the middle of nowhere lost a job because of a financial meltdown. Without skills, the prospect of her getting a new job is bleak. The few shops that could hire her shut down, and she has no transportation to another town. Nor can she afford to move to a bigger city because she’s been living paycheck to paycheck. As a result, she might have to live on the street in a week or two. Objectively speaking, she’s in a crappy situation. Yet, society applauds the optimistic Amy who thinks she will be fine and chugs along. But why is this applaudable? Isn’t optimistic Amy simply delusional at this point? Isn’t facing reality and admitting she’s screwed more applaudable?
Moreover, positive thinking is mere pain alleviation. Just as Tylenol doesn’t treat the cause of your pain, positive thinking itself doesn’t resolve the problem. One may argue pain alleviation is valuable because it helps you overcome a harsh circumstance, but does it? Even if the optimistic Amy secures a job and improves her living situation, this is not necessarily because of the psychological relief. Quite contrarily, the optimistic Amy might decide to sit back and enjoy life on the street exactly because she finds psychological relief from her unsupported optimism. What if psychological relief is in itself valuable, regardless of its consequences? Then, why don’t we live simply as happy, delusional people?
So, as an early teen, I concluded optimism amid adversity is BS.
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I came to accept the importance of optimism from my experience. I had to overcome quite a few hurdles as a teen and a young adult, and optimism took me quite far. Even in a situation like Amy’s, it helps to be positive. Am I now deluded too? What to think of this?
As for positive attitudes, it’s easy to explain. Consider the following cliché: Two people are describing a glass that is 50% full.
- The glass is only half full. / The glass is half empty.
- The glass is still half full. / The glass is half full.
These two propositions have the same and true content—the glass is 50% full—yet the attitudes toward this content differ. They are about how the speaker relates to the proposition and thus are subjective. As such, it is possible to acknowledge the crappy reality and still hold a positive attitude without an error.
On the other hand, positive thinking—as opposed to a mere attitude—is much more challenging to defend because it involves propositions that is true or false. For instance, Amy might think “Everything will be fine,” yet her situation does not improve. In other words, a positive thought can be true or false just as “It will be cloudy tomorrow” can be true or false.
But here’s the thing: When we acknowledge a hopeless situation yet say, “Everything will be fine,” we are not really ignoring that things are terrible now and will likely be the same. Instead, we really mean “I know that it’s improbable that the situation will improve anytime soon, but I’ll bet on the minimal yet existent possibility that it will.” And betting on this possibility is not erroneous because human affairs are full of unexpected events. Unlike the physical fact that the sun rises every day, you cannot predict the future with 100% certainty. Who knows there will be a neighbor who works in a bigger town and hears about Amy’s situation, deciding to give her a ride? Who knows if the media will cover Amy’s story after she decides to commute on foot for 8 hours, leading people to donate money to her? Admittedly, the chances are slim, but they still exist.
Hence, positive thinking in a hopeless situation is not a denial of reality. Rather, it is making a bet while knowing how the probability is working against you. It is like pressing a green button that would give you a million dollars at a 1% chance instead of pressing a red button that would give you a thousand dollars at a 99% chance. While this may be an irrational choice, it is not erroneous. Furthermore, unlike pressing a red button, a bettor gains nothing by betting that her situation will not improve. On the contrary, if she bets on the minimal possibility that the situation will be better, she will gain psychological relief and have an easier time enduring the current hardship. It’s like having Tylenol until your fever subdues. Therefore, in any case, it is rational and not erroneous to think positively even in a horrible circumstance.
Now, what about the optimistic but deluded Amy who is perfectly happy with her ruined life? The answer is simple. This Amy is not optimistic Amy I’m defending. I’m defending Amy who’s optimistic even though she knows that her situation is crappy and all the odds are against her. In other words, to be considered optimistic in my scenario, Amy should not have a conflict between doxastic attitudes (e.g., thinking her situation is crappy but also sitting on the couch all day because she thinks it’s somehow not all that bad). If she truly thinks that her situation is crappy, she’d be motivated to get out of this crappy situation because it’s, well, crappy! But for those who disagree with motivation as the requirement of knowing, I can simply add another requirement to being optimistic Amy: Amy should have the motivation to improve her horrible situation to be considered optimistic in my scenario.
And while this is external to why optimism is defensible, I would add another quality Amy must utilize in order to make her positive thinking and attitude effective: to act accordingly, i.e., to not have akrasia.
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To summarize, optimism in a hopeless situation is not BS. A positive attitude does not distort the understanding of reality. It only alters your relation to the understanding of reality.
Neither does a positive thought. Even when it’s improbable for a situation to get better, human affairs aren’t as predictable as physical law, so there’s always more than a 0% chance of getting better. A positive thought bets on this possibility while acknowledging the reality. And making this bet helps you endure a current bad situation.
Also, for a positive thought to not be a delusion, the following requirements must be met:
- A true understanding of the current situation (i.e., having no attitudinal conflict believing he or she is in a horrible situation)
- Motivation to get through the situation (which I think follows 1, but for those who’d disagree, I’m putting this as requirement 2)
Lastly, external to the above argument, optimism would be effective only if one takes actions to improve one’s situation (i.e., having no akrasia).
Under these conditions, a positive thought and attitude even in the greatest adversity is not the distortion of reality. It’s an effective tool we all need to equip ourselves with.
~ Fido
Other posts from the series Recounting My Intellectual Journey
Series Introduction
Being a teenager; swinging like a pendulum
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