Pessimism: The Path to Accepting Reality.

When we think of the word “pessimism” the first thoughts that arise are ones of doom, gloom, and despair. While this is accurate, it refers more to the emotional aspect of the term, not the philosophical pessimism of this essay. When the term pessimism is used in this work, it refers to the acceptance of life-as-it-is, rather than life-as-it-should-be. The wisdom of the pessimistic view of reality is found in the simple acceptance of reality as it is, not reality as our minds wish it to be. The rejection of life-as-it-is is the main cause of our psychological suffering as humans. We imagine what our life could be and the conflict between our symbolic imaginations and the reality of our actual lives is the source of our angst and the general sense that something is terribly wrong, not just with the world, but with our very selves. Unfortunately, we are hardwired for finding life dissatisfactory. This is the driving force not only behind human invention but evolution itself. Accepting the reality of life-as-it-is requires self-examination. In this sense, philosophical pessimism requires the acknowledgment of the nature of the world, followed by the realization that yes, the world mostly does not mirror our dreams and desires. But we cannot stop there. We must go a step beyond this thinking and realize that, even though life is not what we wish it to be, we must push on. More importantly, we realize that no matter what the world throws at us no matter how terrible, we will persevere. This realization of our ability to persevere through life, no matter how bad it gets, is the hidden treasure at the end of the rainbow of pessimistic thought. Yes, the realization of the inherent pessimism of the world is crushing but the good news is that we are strong enough to handle it, no matter what. This is the power of life itself, and realizing this power of life is the gift of human consciousness and self-awareness.