are you pessimistic or optimistic about the future?

nowisee

why?

i just saw a documentary called "the corporation". very disturbing.

one premise put forth likened our reality to those who first experimented with flying. they formed contraptions with wings and jumped off cliffs. they were airborne for some time, leading them to believe their experiments were successes. yet they were doomed to crash.

a parallel was drawn to the times in which we live, in particular the corporate culture. corporate entities are portrayed as being only concerned with the bottom dollar profits, at the expense of humanity via poverty, pollution, disease, etc.

i would love to find reasons for optimism but it is difficult

how do you see it?.

blondie

AA has a saying

One day at a time

So that is how I live it. I can make my choices based on my research and inclination and resources.

Life is precious. Rather than dreaming about going to Hawaii (not that that can't be a goal), I think about visiting the botanical gardens in my town.

I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.
Anne Frank

Blondie

zagor

Neither, I'm possibilistic. Future is what you make of it. Often self-fulfilling prophecy.

nowisee

blondie, thanks. you never fail to offer wise words...

as a second-grader my jewish teacher who had heard her share of my second-grade jw preaching/non flag-salute, etc, gave me a copy of "the diary of anne frank". over the years it became tattered with reading and rereading.

anne chose to believe that people were really good at heart. i guess i believe that too when it comes down to it. most of us, at least, want to do good. yet the good we wish is often what we do not do.

evil seems to carry more weight and has the capacity to be so so devastating and destructive.

which will win?

peacefulpete

It seems that it is a favorite pastime of people to prognosticate, and usually it's negative. It seems quite safe to say that the future will include terrible tragedy. It will just as surely include human kindness and technical progress. As long as we don't let too many with apocalyptic visions to govern us, the human race will be around to explore and change for millions of years.

seattleniceguy

I am optimistic. I believe that we are, on balance, better off than we were in the past, that the slope in generally upward.

I believe that the key to advancement of all types is knowledge. Witness the changes that happened between the dark ages and the Rennaisance, which were tied to secularization and sharing of knowledge.

Modern technology, particularly the Internet, provides access to knowledge as never before.

Falsehood cannot stand in the light of knowledge.

It has been, and will be, a struggle, but I believe that eventually extreme ideologies will be overcome and humans will become, on average, more moderate and healthy.

May we each contribute to such a future in whatever way we can!

SNG

talesin

Yah, I saw that doc, too. Corporate entity as sociopath ...too true.

To answer the question, I am an optimistic realist. Negativity only breeds negativity. Sometimes I get made fun of for my views, but so what? If I was pessimistic, I would have killed myself a loooong time ago.

tal

bebu

(((((nowisee)))))

It is when the night is darkest that the stars shine the brightest. Even though there is much evil in the world, it will yet be overcome by good. Dark cannot put out light; a little light dispels a lot of darkness.

Even though I feel occasional waves of sorrow or fear, I am learning to be brave. I think I'm overall an optimist.

bebu

doofdaddy

How can I be pessimistic? I'm off to Sri Lanka on Monday for a holiday.

News just in. There is talk on the news of a new internal war in SL!!! Damn (true story).

mtbatoon

Systems of government come and go. Right now capitalism is the best suited for the worlds technology, population size and social development. It has many down sides but also many pluses. True it can't sustain itself and will collapse through its own greed rather than being brought down by the masses in the way that Marx and Engels tried to orchestrate. I am optimistic in general regarding the future but I don't see us ever achieving our goal system, rather an improved system to meet our current needs.

are you pessimistic or optimistic about the future?

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