Optimism = Moot Point
Who is this Murphy dude and why did he get to make the law?
Dear Rarely Wrong Rex,
If optimism is so great? If it’s really the best way to approach life?
Then why is optimism’s success rate so low?
To quote Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can wrong, will go wrong.”
Pessimism has a much better record of documented and statistical accuracy.
I’m sick of all the positivity propaganda that glosses over this fact.
Signed,
My Optimism Plummets Every Year
Dear MOPEY,
You seem convinced of pessimism’s capacity for accurately chronically the universe.
To that opinion, I quickly take umbrage!
Although I do admit a certain bias, given my professional responsibilities. As the gregarious Master of Ceremonies? I must lead with optimism.
There is no other way. It is the ultimate job requirement.
One that I embrace daily and embody with zeal.
Murphy’s Law? A quick Internet search tells us it was named after Edward A. Murphy Jr., an aerospace engineer who worked on military defense designs.
His quote, however, has been mutated! The original phrasing reads far differently: “If a part can be installed in more than one position, it will be incorrectly installed in the field.”
He meant it as merely a design principle. A helpful tip to be imparted to co-workers.
With no connection to existential doubt, entropy, or the reason why bread always falls peanut-butter-side down.
That misconception now corrected, I say this: keep a running tally of your efforts at optimism. Document the results. Appy an academic rigor to your concerns.
And just as with me? There may be bias. In your case, confirmation bias! We too often focus on evidence which matches our own view. Let the raw data tell you new truths.
One last thought, if I may? And please note that this is neither propaganda nor ringmaster parlance.
This is just human to human.
You may suffer from depression. Or trauma. Or loneliness.
Or some similar but no less difficult matter.
A challenge that resides outside the bailiwick of optimism.
By being diligent and persevering, you may yet uncover solutions to your concerns.
For it does not seem that pessimism has provided any sufficient or useful answers.
Counterpoint commentary by …
Frieda Looke, the Tattooed Lady
The workings of the cosmos? The forces that shape and influence our lives?
Quite beyond my ability to comprehend.
I possess no unique clarity, no discerning talent for prophecy.
Except in one regard: that of the self-fulfilling prophecy.
I have two hundred and seventeen tattoos on my body. None of them came with insurance.
No guarantees or assurances of any kind.
None was needed!
For in truth, those tattoos WERE my insurance. My defense. Against a future I did not desire.
Against what some would call a “normal” existence.
I became a living tableau, a walking mural. I knew that if I made myself look different, in a way that could never pass for ordinary? I’d be shaping the course of my life.
It would be my self-fulfilling prophecy.
“Regular” life and I would never have reason to converse.
I did not know where it would lead. All I knew for sure was what I was running from.
How does this relate to optimism and pessimism?
I don’t believe that either is particularly important. Not to me. Just go hard in a direction. Any direction.
Hope is sometimes the unexpected byproduct of effort.
Do your best, hold on tight, and stay away from that which you know you don’t want.
