Isms: Views on life in rural America

I saw a quote recently and it’s been on my mind since then: “The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.”

I like surprises, that’s the optimist in me shining through, looking for a lesson worth learning or a silver lining.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of pessimism in the world today. I see and hear it often in casual conversations and on social media. Its tentacles are permeating society, pulling us farther apart, creating a divide that will take years and years to correct.

It’s unfortunate.

I’ve been leafing through “The Hope Circuit,” by Dr. Martin Seligman, a psychologist and former president of the American Psychological Association. He claims, “Half the world is on the low positive affective spectrum.”

In other words, half of the world is, well, they’re miserable.

The good news: It’s not anyone’s fault. Humans are conditioned to think that way.

Think about how many times you’ve heard or thought a positive thought and then, later or even the next day, that thinking becomes skewed because something negative happens. Then, it’s a snowball effect where people continue to think negative events will always happen. And soon enough, people are in this vicious, conditioned cycle of pessimism.

Seligman asserts that optimism is a learned trait, not something that happens naturally. There’s hope. Humans can learn to be optimistic.

It comes down to how we process information, like the half full, half empty glass of water. If you’re thirsty, and there’s water in the glass, it’s a positive sign. Not thirsty? Glass only filled to the midpoint? You’re looking at the negative.

It comes down to how we control or change portions of our lives. If you believe you can improve a situation, through actions, you’re learning how to be optimistic.

It comes down to how we react to failure. If we blame ourselves, if we internalize our reaction, we tend to take a pessimistic view. When we look at the big picture though, at extenuating circumstands, we have a more optimistic view of how to make improvements.

We should be teaching optimism. Realism, too. Seligman calls it flexible optimism, or optimism with its eyes open.

“We must be able to use pessimism’s keen sense of reality when we need it, but without having to dwell in its dark shadows,” Seligman writes in another of his works, “Learned Optimism.”

It’s a balancing act.

And, it’s time to make a change in this world, time to adjust the sails and forge a new, positive path.