People often have this attitude where they encourage you not to be an optimist and make empty statements that life is meaningful. You might as well put a sock on your hand and call it mr.happy and just keep telling me that shit over and over. No matter how much you believe that life is meaningful, that doesn't make it true. "No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randy

This kind of optimism isn't logical. It's because our society values putting on a happy face. Anyone who isn't blind can see the way that when someone expresses hatred, discontent, hopelessness, people get intolerant and impatient. People say you're immature or a loser. I know why. It's because that's how they're raised to think. Most people just copy what everyone else around them is doing. People value norms and values of society, usually no matter what they are. Everyone believes in god because other people tell them to and everyone else is doing it. It's seriously just a way of controlling people. So everyone acts in the image of those around them. What do we have? A blindly optimistic society that ignores those with problems and is only concerned with continuing the charade.

I wish i still had this video that they showed us in sociology class where they had a clown and a some unhappy people in the work place. It told about how people think that if you pretend to be happy that you will just become happy. I really wish I could get more ideas from that video because I think it goes along the lines of what I am talking about here. Does anyone feel that keeping an optimistic attitude is every a good idea? I think optimism is just a way of trying to ignore the reality of a situation and hoping it will go away.

My life has meaning, meaning that I supply to it. That is not very connected to my happiness, though, nor is it connected to optimism or pessimism.

Some people get upset by folks speaking plainly, but I've found that it can be done if you use tact and diplomacy.

(October 17, 2014 at 10:46 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote:

---

---

Here are some questions I have to explain the meaning of life. I just copy-pasted this from an old thread.

Do ideas only exist in our imaginations? Or do we have the power to make ideas reality?
Is this planet ever going to grow rocket ships and spread life throughout the universe?
Are we or are we not the earths natural source for radically expanding creativity?
Is this radically expanding creativity sustainable without moral regulation?
Would you dismiss music as just meaningless sound waves? Is a painting just colorful grease on a sheet of cotton? Or are they art?
Would you say life is tasteless and without meaning? Or is life an art form? Do metaphors give art meaning?

Yeah, cause judging other people the way you do MLA is the way to go is it? You're so immature. You "know everything" do you?

You have absolutely no authority to come on here and tell people their lives have no meaning; and no one is interested in listening to that message either.

I really don't see optimism, per se as a bad thing, but the title of the OP specified 'blind optimism', and I agree that this can be a very bad thing.

I'm a generally optimistic person. I take steps to address issues that come up, and I almost always feel that this leads to a good outcome - what is this if not optimism? I'm speaking of external issues. I have very few internal problems that can't be resolved by a bottle of rum and a day at the beach.

But even this variety of pragmatic optimism is far, far better than pessimism of ANY sort. I can't imagine going through life thinking that my efforts and outcomes are foredoomed to failure, or that the misery in my life outweighs the joy I have in simply being alive. If I believed that, I'd put a gun in my mouth right now.

Boru

(October 17, 2014 at 10:44 am)MusicLovingAtheist Wrote: People often have this attitude where they encourage you not to be an optimist and make empty statements that life is meaningful. You might as well put a sock on your hand and call it mr.happy and just keep telling me that shit over and over. No matter how much you believe that life is meaningful, that doesn't make it true. "No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randy

Thats the beautiful thing about life. I do not have some predeterimed purpose like I'm a fucking screw driver. I can be as misierable or as happy as I fucking want, and it's not like my life is a fable needs a meaning to be worthwhile'

Quote:This kind of optimism isn't logical. It's because our society values putting on a happy face. Anyone who isn't blind can see the way that when someone expresses hatred, discontent, hopelessness, people get intolerant and impatient.

I'm actually inclined to somewhat agree. As hatred is neccessary, hopelessness is human, discontent is simply lust for a better world, intolerance is sometimes necessary, and impatience is why they invented the microwave.

Quote: People say you're immature or a loser.

People are also fucking stupid

Quote: I know why. It's because that's how they're raised to think. Most people just copy what everyone else around them is doing. People value norms and values of society, usually no matter what they are. Everyone believes in god because other people tell them to and everyone else is doing it. It's seriously just a way of controlling people. So everyone acts in the image of those around them.

Not all of us, some of us have the gall to think for ourselves!

Quote: What do we have? A blindly optimistic society that ignores those with problems and is only concerned with continuing the charade.

Again not true, there are too many of us weirdos (Or those that don't toe the line) to be discounted. And history shows we are not a force to be herded or taken lightly. Just happy workers are productive workers, and since we malcontents are not happy workers often the power that be like to pretend we aren't there

Quote:I wish i still had this video that they showed us in sociology class where they had a clown and a some unhappy people in the work place. It told about how people think that if you pretend to be happy that you will just become happy.

Kinda reminds of what the communists used to feed people in Russia.

Quote: I really wish I could get more ideas from that video because I think it goes along the lines of what I am talking about here. Does anyone feel that keeping an optimistic attitude is every a good idea? I think optimism is just a way of trying to ignore the reality of a situation and hoping it will go away.

Yes actually I think keeping a optimistic attitude is a good idea. You see even if you know its bullshit, it motivates others to do better, if applied properly.

(October 18, 2014 at 5:14 am)Aractus Wrote: Yeah, cause judging other people the way you do MLA is the way to go is it? You're so immature. You "know everything" do you?

You have absolutely no authority to come on here and tell people their lives have no meaning; and no one is interested in listening to that message either.

If you insist, oh great wise one. Your wiseness is overwhelming me! I'm MEEEELLLLLLLTTTTTTIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGGGG... hhhhhhhhhhh

---

(October 18, 2014 at 5:03 am)stonedape Wrote: Here are some questions I have to explain the meaning of life. I just copy-pasted this from an old thread.

Do ideas only exist in our imaginations? Or do we have the power to make ideas reality?
Is this planet ever going to grow rocket ships and spread life throughout the universe?
Are we or are we not the earths natural source for radically expanding creativity?
Is this radically expanding creativity sustainable without moral regulation?
Would you dismiss music as just meaningless sound waves? Is a painting just colorful grease on a sheet of cotton? Or are they art?
Would you say life is tasteless and without meaning? Or is life an art form? Do metaphors give art meaning?

1. Our ideas only exist in our imagination

2. Rockets ships don't grow. They're built.

3. We're not the earth's only natural source of creativity. Animals can be creative too. Beavers builds dams for example.

4. Hell yeah. You can be creative an as immoral as you want within the boundaries of an artistic medium like music, television, literature, etc.

5. Hell no I wouldn't dismiss music as meaningless sound waves. I hear it as a signal of human emotion. You'd have to be operating on a pretty low mental level to just hear music as purely noise. Same with painting. I actually listen to music that is literally classified as noise, and people like Jackson Pollock make paint splotches and people call it great art.

6. Life is not talentless by any means. It is absolutely without meaning. Is life an art form? Depends on your definition of art. Do metaphors give art meaning? Art can use metaphors to convey meaning, and you can use metaphors to interpret art. So I guess so. Art is pretty abstract sometimes so metaphors definitely are useful.

Anything "too much" is bad be it optimism or "blind optimism". Think about when you heard the "Happy" song for the first time, then think about hearing it for months in every channel, interviews, adverts, music shows....


About life being meaningful, that is too much philosophical for me to grasp, but your actions do get affected depending on your approach be it optimistic or pessimistic.