The Seven Laws of Pessimism (1 Viewer)

[cpg]

I realized some time ago that my thinking was fundamentally flawed and needed to change. My general worldview had become entirely unmanageable. Over the years I've sought ways to combat the general dread of "news" with positive stories or positions in a heuristic attempt to reprogram some faulty neural networking, for the greater sake of my sanity. It's not always successful and I frequently fall back into comfortable habits like doom-scrolling and engaging in less-than-productive indulging in political palaver that goes nowhere and achieves nothing. I say all of this to pass along this article which I have found helpful recently. Hopefully, it can be of some benefit here. Or it can just get picked over and pissed on. Either way, I think it's worth sharing.

4. The Law of Conservation of Outrage: No matter how much progress the world is achieving, the total amount of outrage remains constant.

As societies become safer and more prosperous, we demand more of them, and gradually raise the bar for what is considered “safe” or “prosperous.” As a result, even though fewer disasters are happening than ever before, people still have the impression that the world is going downhill. Another Roots of Progress fellow, Fin Moorhouse, has compared this effect to an auditory illusion called “Shepard tone,” in which your ears hear a note as a gradually descending tone while, in reality, it remains at the same pitch. Also, the more infrequently we hear bad news, the more shocked we are when we do.

This isn’t a problem, per se. One of the benefits of progress is that you can afford to be more demanding of the world; we don’t have to tolerate the same levels of misery and suffering that we once did. But if you don’t realize that you’ve been raising your own standards, you may get the impression that the world is steadily getting worse and worse. This results in the conservation of outrage: no matter how much progress the world is achieving, the total amount of kvetching and whining will stay roughly constant, as we see when affluent people complain about first world problems like delayed flights or malfunctioning Wi-Fi.

The conservation principle shows up in other domains as well. It seems to be how our brains are wired. A 2018 study in Science by David Levari et al. showed that what they call “prevalence-induced concept change” even influences basic perception. Subjects were asked how many dots in a consecutive series were a specific color (for instance, blue). As long as the frequency of blue dots remained constant, people accurately reported the number of blue dots. But when the blue dots became less frequent over time, people didn’t count fewer blue dots. Instead, they expanded their definition of “blueness” to include purple dots as well. Researchers have observed the same phenomenon with other stimuli, too. As angry faces become less frequent, people start interpreting neutral faces as angry. And when unethical requests become rare, people start seeing innocuous requests as unethical. The researchers conclude: “The fact that concepts grow larger when their instances grow smaller may be one source of [societal] pessimism.”

The Seven Laws of Pessimism

If life is better than ever before, why does the world seem so depressing?

quillette.com

 

[Saintman2884]

I realized some time ago that my thinking was fundamentally flawed and needed to change. My general worldview had become entirely unmanageable. Over the the years I've sought ways to combat the general dread of "news" with positive stories or positions in a heuristic attempt to reprogram some faulty neural networking, for the greater sake of my sanity. It's not always successful and I frequently fall back into comfortable habits like doom-scrolling and engaging in less-than-productive indulging in political palaver that goes nowhere and achieves nothing. I say all of this to pass along this article which I have found helpful recently. Hopefully, it can be of some benefit here. Or it can just get picked over and P'Oed on. Either way, I think it's worth sharing.

The Seven Laws of Pessimism

If life is better than ever before, why does the world seem so depressing?

quillette.com

Are you familiar with paradigm shifts? Thomas Kuhn, a famous American philosopher, proposed that all throughout recorded history, their have been endless, varying types and degrees of sharply diametrically opposed world-views, philosophies, or integrated paradigms that tend to come into conflict at different moments throughout human history that dominates predominant social, political, religious, economic mindsets that are popular for long periods of time then get replaced by more scientific, or popular or revolutionary ideas?

Kuhn used historical examples as late antiquity Greco-Roman Hellenism and polytheism/emergent Christianity that was embraced by Roman.emperor Constantine and his later ruling dynasty that later lead to Rome's infamous religious, cultural wars in the 4th and 5th C.E.'s or ancient Jews holding on to some aspects of their earlier syncretic Canaanite beliefs (2,700 years ago, some Isrealites in now-modern day northern Isreal worshipped a fertility goddess alongside Yahweh, in essence, God had a wife)/most Jews abandoning polytheism for strict monotheism about 2,500 years ago.

Kuhn also referenced scientific examples like medieval geocentricism/heliocentricism vs. Galileo's theories (if only Galileo had Newton's theories on his side, or Keppler, for that matter, their theories wouldve uniformly proven Galileo's theories.

Then there's classical liberal economics/Marxist economic theory of proletarian socialist revolution which would then lead to state-less, class-less communism.

 

[0rion]

Enjoyed reading that. In recent years I've turned the news off for the most part. It's impossible to avoid it entirely but I don't go searching for news. I tune in during the weather and that's about it. The negativity is just overwhelming to me. I just don't want to hear about it. Doesn't change the fact it's happening.
What I've found is in the last couple of years I generally have pulled back from society as a whole. I just don't like most people and don't want to be around them. The selfishness and rudeness of people would be the #1 reason for that. Is that me searching out negativity? Very well could be.

 

[Consigliere]

Enjoyed reading that. In recent years I've turned the news off for the most part. It's impossible to avoid it entirely but I don't go searching for news. I tune in during the weather and that's about it. The negativity is just overwhelming to me. I just don't want to hear about it. Doesn't change the fact it's happening.

Same- 20 years ago I made a new years resolution to read the paper every day. This year I resolved the opposite. It just makes me mad or sad - never happy.

What I've found is in the last couple of years I generally have pulled back from society as a whole. I just don't like most people and don't want to be around them. The selfishness and rudeness of people would be the #1 reason for that. Is that me searching out negativity? Very well could be.

Not sure about that, selfishness is eternal. I think it is tribal information bubbles, thanks to selective news feeds. People are so sure they know it all and that those that do not agree are "ignorant."

Anyway, back to the OP's article, it is good but omits The Law Of Low Expectations. Denmark reportedly is the happiest country because they set the bar so low.

 

[baarbogast]

That’s why I like Hungary, I can’t understand a word.

 

[SaintJ]

Great article. Another way to put it is that humans weigh gain and loss asymmetrically -- you get a lot more pissed off about a five dollar pay cut than you get happy about a ten dollar raise.

 

[MarylandWHODAT]

Along these same lines of trying to compartmentalize or rationalize things, the book, "The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F**k" is one of the best books I have ever read. It is truly a book/advice that makes you sit back and think for a moment of what is really important in life. Great writing on perspective.

Mark Manson

 

[superchuck500]

Along these same lines of trying to compartmentalize or rationalize things, the book, "The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F**k" is one of the best books I have ever read. It is truly a book/advice that makes you sit back and think for a moment of what is really important in life. Great writing on perspective.

Mark Manson

I haven't read that but I'm curious (have definitely heard of it) - I think I naturally have a disposition that lends that way. I wouldn't call it not giving a fork because that seems sort of negative to me, it's more positive than that . . . sort of like don't sweat stuff you don't need to, and look for the positives in people and most things because life is just more enjoyable that way. It's not that you don't give a fork, it is that the fork you give tends to be more positive than negative, thus generally avoiding the cumulative effect of general negativity. It's certainly not always going to carry you through an event or relationship, sometimes reality is simply incongruent with such a viewpoint - but on the whole, I think it leads to a generally happy or upbeat disposition.

My wife regularly calls me "naive" because I typically don't want to rush to call people or things that happen bad or sinister . . . but then she also gets upset about something and when I don't and tell her it's not the deal she's making of it, she says something to the extent that it's just easy for me not to worry about it and how she has to based on some vague social notion (that I simply don't even recognize because it's obviously not compelling to me). But I think all of that really is it in a nutshell -

I realize that such a life code, for me at least, is the product of privilege but I can't really do anything about that except appreciate it in the form of positivity . . . except for possibly also seeing absurdity when others equally or more privileged in this life take up the worldview of the aggrieved that has become so popular these days. On the other hand, I would never suggest that someone legitimately in the throes of institutional social or economic hardship "not to sweat it" . . . but I also think that the power of positivity can be strong for anyone, no matter the challenges, should they choose to embrace it. There are some absolutely remarkable stories of overcoming insurmountable odds through positivity and grace.

 

[MarylandWHODAT]

I haven't read that but I'm curious (have definitely heard of it) - I think I naturally have a disposition that lends that way. I wouldn't call it not giving a fork because that seems sort of negative to me, it's more positive than that . . . sort of like don't sweat stuff you don't need to, and look for the positives in people and most things because life is just more enjoyable that way. It's not that you don't give a fork, it is that the fork you give tends to be more positive than negative, thus generally avoiding the cumulative effect of general negativity. It's certainly not always going to carry you through an event or relationship, sometimes reality is simply incongruent with such a viewpoint - but on the whole, I think it leads to a generally happy or upbeat disposition.

My wife regularly calls me "naive" because I typically don't want to rush to call people or things that happen bad or sinister . . . but then she also gets upset about something and when I don't and tell her it's not the deal she's making of it, she says something to the extent that it's just easy for me not to worry about it and how she has to based on some vague social notion (that I simply don't even recognize because it's obviously not compelling to me). But I think all of that really is it in a nutshell -

I realize that such a life code, for me at least, is the product of privilege but I can't really do anything about that except appreciate it in the form of positivity . . . except for possibly also seeing absurdity when others equally or more privileged in this life take up the worldview of the aggrieved that has become so popular these days. On the other hand, I would never suggest that someone legitimately in the throes of institutional social or economic hardship "not to sweat it" . . . but I also think that the power of positivity can be strong for anyone, no matter the challenges, should they choose to embrace it. There are some absolutely remarkable stories of overcoming insurmountable odds through positivity and grace.

Great insight and thought.

I absolutely recommend this book. It really emphasizes, in so many ways, to not stress about everything and how we need to look at things and think, why am I so upset about this? Does it really affect me that much? There are great stories about perceptions and how people dealt with adversity.

It is a quick read but it will stick with you.

 

[0rion]

Great example of the reason I want nothing to do with people going on around here right now.

Monday a kid (sophomore) wrecked his car on the way to school. Rumors were going around that he was racing but then it was said he was just passing a car....whatever. Doesn't change things for the kid. He died today. On the local community forum my wife said today some jackass said "Too bad Noah told him to race and this happened". Why you gotta throw that out there for the family to read....and possibly the other kid? Just keep your damn mouth shut about it.

 

[Tapxe]

Along these same lines of trying to compartmentalize or rationalize things, the book, "The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F**k" is one of the best books I have ever read. It is truly a book/advice that makes you sit back and think for a moment of what is really important in life. Great writing on perspective.

Mark Manson

Started reading it after a sample.

Disappointment Panda would be the hero that none of us would want but all of us would need.

I can see great value to all. Especially Karen tho.

 

[Tapxe]

Found this today. Seems to be a good overview explaining some of why this might be.