ON PESSIMISM
T. Padmanabhan
How does one give an account of pessimism that takes hold of the human mind, in an ever-increasing number of cases? In fact, to varying extents, it seems to be an ever-present phenomenon in every human mind. Is it a state of mind, an outlook on life, a conditioner of the thought-process freezing the thinking faculty of man into near stillness, an attitude toward life or just a bleak view of human affairs born of transient causes of discontentment/dissatisfaction with the existing state of affairs, itself flitting or abiding with the very causes of discontent? It may be all these and something. more. Pessimism does not appear to have any well-defined boundaries. It seems to be all-pervasive and wherever it is found, far from selective, virtually total in its effect. It forces on people a near-conclusion that cynicism is either its parent or off-spring. Cynicism may permit of a view as being an allied feeling and state of mind, a reaction to human affairs akin to pessimism? A cynic, as is known, is described as ‘one disposed to deny and sneer at, the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions.’ The dictionary meaning of pessimism, as is also known, will have us view it as ‘the doctrine that this world is the worst possible, that everything naturally tends to evil.’ A pessimist is described as one who habitually takes the worst view of things.’
It is said: ‘The most prolific period of pessimism comes at 21 or thereabouts, when the first attempt is made to translate dreams into reality. Several assumptions seem to have gone into this conclusion: that 1. Early in life alone dreams will find a congenial soil in the human mind; 2. There be the first attempts at translating dreams into reality; 3. The seeds of pessimism will have been sown in the human mind; because 4. Most such attempts will for a certainty be accompanied or followed by disappointment, frustration and what not which are the seed-bed for pessimism; 5. Early in life alone are the roots of pessimism sure to take a firm grip of the human mind, which may find it virtually impossible later on to shake itself free there from. Pessimism as a phenomenon is sure to have had a long history and a virtually boundless dominion over the human mind. It is a topic well worth exploring, the results, even if they be only further doubts, being sure to add to knowledge thereof at ever closer quarters.
The tolerance threshold of the human being for feelings of frustration seems to be low enough to allow easy entry into his mind for pessimism. Someone described the normal human being’s state of mind as ‘contentment within despair!’ Paradoxical as it may seem, the phrase offers to the student of psychology an element of truth. The dead ashes of hope may perhaps rule out any other condition of existence. Perhaps it may permit of description as ‘the grim constraint of compulsory contentment,’ as life has to go on; wherever we encounter ‘suicides,’ we may be encountering instances of rebels against this kind of contentment, seeking in termination of life freedom from such compulsory contentment. ‘Suicides’ may provide instances of paradoxical optimism, that in the hereafter, better terms of existence may await them, assuming that they are believers in rebirth...etc.
Let us see to what extent, conditions of existence give rise to reactions and responses thereto, taking note of the fact of vastly varying ‘response dispositions and capabilities’ in human beings. Tryon Edwards said: ‘There is pleasure enough in this life to make us wish to live, and pain enough to reconcile us to death when we can live no longer. The most we can get out of life is its discipline for ourselves and its usefulness for others.’ How does pessimism position us in ‘the voyage of life?’ Is it as if pessimism that is perhaps nothing more than ‘death of a kind even while being alive,’ has a career of its own, reckless of the possibilities of pleasure in existence and keen on bending its gaze only on the gloomier aspects of life? If a pessimist were to be given the privilege of living his life over again, would he care to edit it? In what way? What will he treat as errata for correction?
Will a pessimist subscribe at all to the proposition that life is earnest, that it is an invitation to live and that the right response thereto can never be exhausted by a gloomy, a negative view of men and matters? Cyclothymia signifies some kind of oscillation of temperament between elation and misery. Pessimism rules out the very possibility of such oscillation and allows for a fixed mental state only, frozen into a self-stultifying life. It was said: ‘He who increases the endearments of life increases at the same time the terrors of death.’ Is it as if for the pessimist, there can’t be anything like the terrors of death because life will have nothing like endearments for him?
There is an interesting Arabic proverb: ‘LIFE IS COMPOSED OF TWO PARTS; THAT WHICH IS PAST – A DREAM; AND THAT WHICH IS TO COME – A WISH.’ Will this ever permit of application to the pessimist at all? In his view perhaps a dream with all its positive implications will be an impossibility and nightmare alone will be a reality. And will wish such as is hinted at above will be a vain endeavour? A pessimist’s life may be one devoid of hope even; gloom alone will be his element. Richter asked: ‘With so many thousand joys, is it not black ingratitude to call the world a place of sorrow and torment?’ At the end of the preceding, paragraph, it was pointed out that to the pessimist, life will have nothing like ‘the solace even of fugitive illusions.’ When illusion which perhaps has a frailer existence than hope can’t itself lodge in the mind of the pessimist, what chances hope has for such prospect? And wish which may be sired by hope may/can never step in where hope is forbidden entry. Ingelow had occasion to observe that ‘we wish for more in life rather than more of it.’ The pessimist will rule out the possibility of ‘more in life,’ and will certainly be in no mood for more of it. There is an ancient prayer which seeks for the utterer the grace ‘to get some happiness from life and pass it on to other folk.’ Any such prayer will be foreign to the very nature of the pessimist and other folk would deem it a piece of good fortune, if the pessimist would leave them alone without passing on to them the ghost even of his frame of mind, which may be no different from ‘being ashamed of yesterday and afraid of tomorrow,’ (and indifferent to the requirements of today?)
Edmund Burke had on an occasion observed: ‘There is nothing in the world really beneficial that does not lie within the reach of an informed understanding and a well-protected pursuit.’ Existence which rules out this possibility will bear comparison to ‘an unfecundated egg, which the waves of time wash away into a non-entity.’ The optimist’s view that there is only opportunity on this earth inviting constructive action will call forth from the pessimist vehement disagreement. Likewise, the optimist’s view of life as ‘an unfinished symphony’ with a fine prospect for an imaginative approach to its completion will be rejected by the pessimist who is sure to treat life as a finished cacophony. The readers will be remembering the sage remark: ‘WE ALL LIVE UNDER THE SAME SKY, BUT WE DQN’T ALL HAVE THE SAME HORIZON.’ To the pessimist, the attitude to life so well stated by a character created by Teasdale: ‘I make the most of all that comes, and the least of all that goes,’ will be foreign. So runs an observation: ‘It is our relation to circumstances that determines their influence over us. The same wind that causes one vessel to sail into port may blow another off shore.’ This truth will be found to fashion the optimist or the pessimist out of any human being. William Barclay remarked: ‘We will often find compensation if we think more of what life has given us and less about what life has taken away.’ The pessimist will be thinking that ‘life is a fatal complaint;’ the optimist that ‘it is a romantic business.’ To the pessimist, life may be ‘a series of mistakes;’ to the optimist ‘a magic vase filled to the brim with agreeable surprises.’ The pessimist will have collected too many ‘wrinkles on his soul,’ ever taking a negative view of life’s possibilities. To the optimist, life may be any of these things: ‘a journey, a battle, a pilgrimage, a race,’ in which to participate with gusto.
An interesting (and not an impossible) view will be that in every aspect of life there are sure to be traces of the sway of pessimism over the human mind. Contingent planning as a concern of the planning agency is itself available to cite as an example, because it takes its origin in the apprehension that something may go wrong with intended action. Even the very act of testamentary disposition may be cited as an example of the assertion of pessimism as against habitual health even, in a person. To repeat, traces of pessimism may be found beneath motives, behind action, accounting for steps taken in case such and such an event happens, in case the future holds out a not very pleasant prospect. The uncertainty that underlies all life is certain to influence the thinking that precedes (that should precede) every action. No doubt a wide, unbounded prospect may lie before every human being, but ‘shadows, clouds and darkness rest upon it.’ It is right there that pessimism takes its birth.