Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will

[ad hoc]

No idea if this is worth a thread, but my thoughts are trying to get help in fully understanding this concept. I'll start from the beginning

Yesterday, i watched Elif Shafak's short talk on the current pandemic situation as part of the Hay Festival that Sam linked to. She talked about how we have the choice to start again now from this point. I have thought the same but fear it will not happen. However, she went on to talk about how we need to have pessimism of the head and optimism of the heart, and linked it to Gramsci (the Italian political philosopher, not the OTF poster who nowadays only comes here to talk about sumo). Gramsci, in his Prison Notebooks, raises this idea of "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" (I have now read that it wasn;t originally his phrase but that of Romain Rolland - of who, I confess, I have never heard). Anyway, Gramsci popularised the phrase and gave it depth (depth which I don't really understand, but am trying to)

Anyway, later in the day, I read this piece about a series of lectures by Viktor Frankl (recently also talked about on OTF books), which have just been published in English for the first time under the title "Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything". This also seems (in my reading) to come down to this sense of the pessimism of the head, optimism of the heart.

These two things happening on the same day is, sure, a coincidence, and of no more meaning than any other coincidence. But the two things impinging on my consciousness on the same day and sparking something which i think had been bubbling around in my thoughts for a while, did have the effect of making me delve more into this - because I suspect that this is really where I am, and perhaps where many of us are. How to have faith (for want of a better word) in humanity, in the future of us all, while at the same time holding the apparently contradictory pessimism that seems to be the only intellectual response to our current situation (I mean here more the rise of the far right)?

Like I say, i have no real grasp on even what this means, what it would look like and how it can be of value in making space for a positive future, but I thought I would throw it out and see if it sparks any thoughts in anyone else and if you could share them with me as I feel like there is something here of value (perhaps just to me, don;t know), but I;m struggling to locate it and dig it out.

This may be a bit self indulgent, for which, apologies.

(I put this in books, because (a) the two sources mentioned both appeared very recently in this forum, and (b) maybe we can make books also function as onetouchconfusedphilosophicalmeanderings )

[Aitch]

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

[Patrick Thistle]

My favourite scene in Firefly is when Malcolm Reynolds is told he was on the wrong side in the war. His response was "I might have been on the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

[Amor de Cosmos]

Like I say, i have no real grasp on even what this means, what it would look like and how it can be of value in making space for a positive future, but I thought I would throw it out and see if it sparks any thoughts in anyone else and if you could share them with me as I feel like there is something here of value (perhaps just to me, don;t know), but I;m struggling to locate it and dig it out.

I think that, collectively, we've forgotten that life isn't about winning — as many contemporary public figures appear to think — but about learning.

[ursus arctos]

There is massive social, political and economic pressure to think in those terms, particularly over here, where winning is also defined in terms of money and the humiliation of one's opponents.

One of the many indicia of this is the complete disconnect between CEO and senior executive pay from that of the median employee in the enterprises they "lead" over the last quarter century or so, as well as the not unrelated rise in economic inequality.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Indeed. And, at the other end of life, you see it in competitive sport for children as paradigm for later life, or even beauty "contests" for little girls (which remarkably are still a thing.) We diminish every human quality bar a warped notion of success. The need to listen to the other voices, even if instinctively we dislike or disbelieve them, has never been more paramount in my lifetime.

[ad hoc]

Yes, I'm getting a lot more pessimism of the intellect than optimism of the anything at all from this set of thoughts.

I think in general maybe I'm looking for actions that can be taken to help open up the doorway behind which lives the things-about-which-I-can-feel-optimistic-in-the-human-spirit, and help to keep closed (or start closing) the door behind which lives the vileness of humanity, which seems to be everywhere these days, and increasingly powerful. But maybe there aren't actions, there is only hope and belief in this optimism of the will, optimism of the heart, and the role of the pessimism is to always be on guard and watching for the negative. (I dunno this all sounds like some dodgy good/evil thing which is not where I want to go). Following on from one of those sites I linked there is the quote "critical thinking without hope is cynicism, but hope without critical thinking is naivete", which I think is where I am, except that my pendulum swing is far more towards the cynicism (and indeed hopeless) end of the cycle than the naivete end.

[ursus arctos]

I have found that working with (and also spending time leisure time with) people who are actively working to make things better and who challenge the dominant narrative is very helpful.

This can take a variety of forms. I do pro bono work for a number of NGOs and am active in a variety of other charitable and educational organisations, but even the way the residents of our building have come together to look after our more vulnerable residents during the pandemic has been inspiring and a source of hope.

[ad hoc]

Thanks ursus

[WOM]

This is an interesting thread idea, and very timely. I'm interested in responding, but my thoughts are all over the place after the OP so I have to corral them.

Aitch probably put it as succinctly as I could have. I have 'faith' in the underlying goodness of people, but also a wariness that when push comes to shove, it's the first thing that they'll abandon so as to look after their own.

[lambers]

Just wanted to say this is all very interesting stuff, I don't really have coherency in my own thoughts to add anything apart from to confirm that I am also on the pessimistic end of things.

[Amor de Cosmos]

I'm getting a lot more pessimism of the intellect than optimism of the anything at all from this set of thoughts.

That's why our capacity for wonder and consequent desire to learn and understand comes in. From experience, to lie down in a field of buttercups and stare at a blue sky with a couple eagles circling in it can open up a wealth of personal discovery.

[San Bernardhinault]

I'm not sure that I fully understand the "will" vs "intellect" here.I think you should always mentally prepare yourself for bad outcomes. You should be aware that some members of humanity have bad motivations, and many with good motivations act badly. On the whole, though, I always start by assuming the best in people, assuming that - without extra evidence - they're trying to do the right thing, that people are fundamentally good, even if they're often misguided about how to get there. I do follow the "arc of history is long... but bends toward justice" mentality. Things do generally get better for more people over the long term.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Prison Notebooks, written in prison under Mussolini, are a perfect practical illustration of what the phrase is ultimately about: no matter what we have lost, or which battles they are winning (about which we must be very clear-sighted and honest)...
a) it could’ve gone differently-there was always hope or potential for change
and b) there is always something to be done now, however dark the situation (even if it’s just writing in notebooks no-one can read. Maybe)

[MsD]

My favourite thing from Gramsci was his notion of “moment”. That seems to have gone out of fashion now.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I go to Gramsci for "common sense" (Common sense is not a single unique conception, identical in time and space. It is the "folklore" of philosophy, and, like folklore, it takes countless different forms. Its most fundamental character is that it is a conception which, even in the brain of one individual, is fragmentary, incoherent and inconsequential.”).

Other than that, his stuff seems often to be used by many of the worst charlatans of the left. The OOTWPOTI stuff is in this category, sadly, and tends to mean "lie to yourself and others about how bad things are for us".

[Antepli Ejderha]

Thanks for the opening post ad hoc and for all subsequent posts, now is the perfect time for change on both macro and micro levels. That's why it won't happen as those in power have so much to lose.

[MsD]

There could be something said re the war of position, as the Corbyn leadership managed to shift the centre of gravity leftwards.