The misunderstanding of pessimism

Pessimists are known to be thought of as generally negative, depressed and grumpy people. I'm here to tell you that this is very far from the truth. Pessimists are largely misunderstood realists. Pessimism is a philosophy and an ethic, one that sees the world for what it is. The easiest way to describe what it means to be a pessimist is to look at the present and the future from a perspective that removes all irrational hopes and dreams, in fact, pessimists stand against that kind of thinking which explains why you will find the vast majority of philosophical pessimists among the anti-theistic community. If one is facing a difficult time ahead, we do not rely on gods, prayers and false hopes to pull us through. We rely on our own actions and decisions. This is one of the main reasons pessimists are viewed to be so negative. Humans are different from the rest of the animal kingdom. Where animals live in the present, humans have the ability to deliberate the past, present and the future. This makes a huge difference. Where an animal by instinct knows that if a predator catches it, it will be eaten and it will die. Humans, on the other hand, fully understand their mortality. We know that even if we take good care of our bodies, we will eventually age and die. Humans have come to believe that this makes us special. This comes with a sense of purpose, significance and meaning. Pessimists rejects these ideas. We as pessimists believe that our lives are no more significant than the common wasp. We look at life on a universal scale, so naturally, we do not believe that we were born with any form of purpose, except to obey pur genes: eat, sleep, reproduce and die. Therefore, life has no meaning. Another reason why we are seen as negative people. Why do we not just commit suicide, you may ask? Why do we persevere if life is meaningless? This is the part of pessimism that people do not understand. Just because life has no meaning, doesn't mean that we cannot give our lives our own meaning. We find meaning to life in our work. We find meaning to life in our wives. We find meaning to life in our hobbies, heck, we even find meaning to life in bacon and ice-cream. Contrary to popular belief, we really do enjoy our lives. It may seem to be the opposite, but pessimists are generally happy people. We just don't think like the rest of you do. For starters, pessimists rarely experience dissapointment with outcomes and more often than not, pleasantly surprised with outcomes. This is because of our rejection of high hopes and preferred methods of realistically calculated expectations. Just because we always prepare for the worst, doesn't mean we are depressed and want to die. A little off topic, but worth mentioning, you will never see a pessimist gambling with the hopes of coming home richer. If we do gamble, we do it for entertainment and with a set budget of money we can blow. Anyfart, moving on. So what is the pessimist's philosophy in life? You work your whole life to pay for the suit they bury you in. Sounds depressing, but you may as well enjoy the ride. Here's the deal: we are the architects of our own fate. We decide our own destiny. This is a very POSITIVE thing. No amount of praying, hoping and wishing will get you to your goals. You have to get yourself there.