Optimism vs. Nihilism: Which outlook is worth living?

Optimism can be terrifying. And I mean… extremely terrifying. Positioning oneself in place to be optimistic about a particular outcome based on a decision, an uncontrollable life event, or any aspect of our autonomy assumes a sort of leap of positive faith. I do want to address, before diving into the deep end of the optimism pool, that I am not advocating against it. In fact, optimism plays an important part of our psychological predisposition regarding curiosity of the world around us and its possibilities. In fact, it also could indicate a strong and healthy relationship with ourselves- having a firm grasp on what is in and out of our control, and maybe having unconditional trust our ability to accurately assess the possibility of something quite great to happen. Fantastic, this is!

Aristotle famously asserted his idea of “the golden mean”, where virtues and vices we all have remain on a linear spectrum; one in which each part of our tendencies, whether virtuous or vicious are layed upon a scale. Too much of either carry severe consequences. To put it in a rather black an white, simple matter, let’s take the vice of selfishness and the virtue of selflessness. Tip the scale to the selfishness you are acting in your own self interests making you egotistical and uninterested with the state of others with your actions. Thus, not having the respective selflessness factor that would bring you to the closer, middle ground of the “golden mean”. But what if you acted completely selfless? What if you indulged in a life of unconditional giving? Well, according to the golden mean, a radical virtue is just as detrimental as a radical vice… This sounds incredibly counterintuitive at first, as virtues indeed suit our natural tendency of utilitarianism so deeply vetted in our behaviors, yet we forget the fundamental right of self-assertion and self-belief. To those of you who have a hard time saying no to others, to those of you giving up your own happiness and well being so another person can give you the time of day, to those of you who restlessly strive to give and give (in whichever manner/ aspect) and afterwards feeling the drain and dread of naively self-sabotaging your own beliefs and values, you belong in the selflessness category of excessive virtue.

“Julia, Julia… you strayed away from optimism! How does this idea of the golden mean even make sense with that useless and rather dry, aphoristic, philosophy of balance!”

Well, my dear reader, the point I’m trying to assert here is that not all aspects of our humanity and our individual life experiences lend itself nicely to optimism, or its nihilistic counterpart. Much like the example of selflessness and selfishness, there is a “golden mean” of perspective, whether is nihilistic or optimistic. Both are incredible detriments if they’re indulged in too much.

When one prides themselves on viewing life optimistically, they fail to see the negative, very real, possibilities of an outcome, onces which are important in developing a very real, candid, and honest view of the world that surrounds them. The creation of a positive outcome when the odds are against you serves as a good ground to jumpstart off of to combat those odds, but it runs the risk of placing the individual in a position of false hope or naivety. Such high optimism may even throw one’s own beliefs into the exact opposite of spectrum: nihilism.

However, the same problem can be said for the nihilists. In a world where we can control most of the trajectory of our life, or at least a good chunk of it, nihilists run the risk of destroying an opportunity they never knew they had to begin with through self and other doubt. Thinking the worst will happen creates a pitfall of never-ending grief and bitterness. Often times, nihilism serves as a defense mechanism since time and time again, we've been let down by optimism itself. And if one must fall into nihilism to keep up with life as a result of optimism, one must think to themselves that there must be a better way to approach life and all of its intricacies and turns.

Striving for a good outcome out of all experiences doesn’t necessarily mean optimism is your key outlook on life. In all aspects of our human behaviors we want to seek an option for direction that will best suit our psychological and physical well-being, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we strive for optimism: we strive for realism. The mean of truth, and valid understanding. Yet, realism is a tough balance to keep up, thus we opt for the extremes to survive in a world that paralyzes us from the limitless and endless outcomes of our decisions, whether it's in or out of our control.

Achieving the golden mean of outlook calls for a mastery of senses and perceptions. I am a radical believer in the fact that in our lifetimes we reveal ourselves to ourselves everyday, so our knowledge of ourselves may not be evident to us ever. Yet, through opening up to the harshities and the blissful and attainable opportunities in life ushers us into a mean of realistic and deliberate understanding of the world around us. Instead of exhibiting to the sexiness and socially-acceptable appeal of the optimistic, or the gross self-loathing, and frankly annoying aspects of the nihilistic, we can dance between these lines to attain the sort of outlook that we all owe ourselves to attain. Life has a way of throwing us into this volatile dance between these two; however, without such a tango, we wouldn’t know the key revelations of what these two aspects of outlooks really teaches us: humility, compassion, dread, melancholy, and gumption. Optimism and nihilism reveals to us a world that exists in the middle, one that keys in on the nature of ourselves and the world around us. We must venture into both spectrums throughout our lives to experience perception to the full while maintaining a healthy skepticism of those things or those who try to push you into one of these obsoletes.

Now...Here is the age old question:

Is the glass half full or half empty?

The glass is half full?

The glass is half empty?

Or…

The glass is twice the size it needs to be.