Editing Pessimism

{{Short description|Negative mental attitude}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2022}}
[[File:Оптимист и пессимист.jpg|thumb|220px|''An optimist and a pessimist'', [[Vladimir Makovsky]], 1893]]

'''Pessimism''' is a mental attitude in which an undesirable outcome is anticipated from a given situation. Pessimists tend to focus on the negatives of life in general. A common question asked to test for pessimism is "[[Is the glass half empty or half full?]]"; in this situation, a pessimist is said to see the glass as half empty, or in extreme cases completely empty, while an [[Optimism|optimist]] is said to see the glass as half full. Throughout history, the pessimistic disposition has had effects on all major areas of thinking.<ref name="ben">{{Cite book|last=Bennett|first=Oliver|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GqDKwAEACAAJ|title=Cultural Pessimism: Narratives of Decline in the Postmodern World|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-7486-0936-9|location=Edinburgh|language=en}}</ref>

==Etymology==
The term pessimism derives from the Latin word ''pessimus'', meaning 'the worst'. It was first used by [[Jesuit]] critics of [[Voltaire]]'s 1759 novel ''[[Candide, ou l'Optimisme]]''. Voltaire was satirizing the philosophy of [[Leibniz]] who maintained that this was the 'best (optimum) of all possible worlds'. In their attacks on Voltaire, the Jesuits of the ''Revue de Trévoux'' accused him of ''pessimisme''.<ref name="Dienstag">{{cite book|last=Dienstag|first=Joshua Foa|title=Pessimism: Philosophy, Ethic, Spirit|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-6911-4112-1|location=Princeton, New Jersey}}</ref>{{Rp|9}}

==As a psychological disposition==
In the [[ancient world]], psychological pessimism was associated with [[Melancholia|melancholy]], and was believed to be caused by an excess of [[black bile]] in the body. The study of pessimism has parallels with the study of [[Depression (mood)|depression]]. Psychologists trace pessimistic attitudes to emotional pain or even biology. [[Aaron Beck]] argues that depression is due to unrealistic negative views about the world. Beck starts treatment by engaging in conversation with clients about their unhelpful thoughts. Pessimists, however, are often able to provide arguments that suggest that their understanding of reality is justified; as in [[Depressive realism]] or ([[Cultural pessimism|pessimistic realism]]).<ref name="ben" /> Deflection is a common method used by those who are depressed. They let people assume they are revealing everything which proves to be an effective way of hiding.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kirszner |first=Laurie |url=https://archive.org/details/patternsforcolle0000unse/page/477 |title=Patterns for College Writing |date=January 2012 |publisher=Bedford/St.Martins |isbn=978-0-312-67684-1 |location=United States |page=[https://archive.org/details/patternsforcolle0000unse/page/477 477]}}</ref> The pessimism item on the [[Beck Depression Inventory]] has been judged useful in predicting [[suicide]]s.<ref>{{citation |last1=Beck |first1=AT |title=Hopelessness and eventual suicide: a 10-year prospective study of patients hospitalized with suicidal ideation |journal=American Journal of Psychiatry |volume=142 |issue=5 |pages=559–563 |year=1985 |citeseerx=10.1.1.462.6328 |doi=10.1176/ajp.142.5.559 |pmid=3985195 |last2=Steer |first2=RA |last3=Kovacs |first3=M}}</ref> The [[Beck Hopelessness Scale]] has also been described as a measurement of pessimism.<ref>{{citation |last1=Beck |first1=AT |title=The measurement of pessimism: the hopelessness scale |journal=Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology |volume=42 |issue=6 |pages=861–5 |year=1974 |publisher=Journal of Consulting and Clinical |doi=10.1037/h0037562 |pmid=4436473 |last2=Weissman |first2=A |last3=Lester |first3=D |last4=Trexler |first4=L}}</ref>

Wender and Klein point out that pessimism can be useful in some circumstances: "If one is subject to a series of defeats, it pays to adopt a conservative game plan of sitting back and waiting and letting others take the risks. Such waiting would be fostered by a pessimistic outlook. Similarly if one is raking in the chips of life, it pays to adopt an expansive risk-taking approach, and thus maximize access to scarce resources."<ref>{{citation |last1=Wender |first1=PH |title=Mind, Mood and Medicine |year=1982 |publisher=New American Library |last2=Klein |first2=DF}}</ref>

The leading causes of pessimism are [[genetics]], past experience, and social and environmental factors. One study of 5,187 teenage twins and their siblings suggests that genetics may account for one-third of the variance in whether someone leans toward pessimism vs. [[optimism]], with the remaining variance due to their environment, and [[twin studies]] suggest that, when it comes to personality, about half the differences between us are because of genetic factors. But Spector points out that throughout our lives, in response to environmental factors, our genes are constantly being dialled up and down as with a dimmer switch, a process known as [[epigenetics]].<ref> {{Cite journal |last1=Mavioğlu |first1=Rezan Nehir |last2=Boomsma |first2=Dorret I. |last3=Bartels |first3=Meike |date=2015-11-01 |title=Causes of individual differences in adolescent optimism: a study in Dutch twins and their siblings |journal=European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry |language=en |volume=24 |issue=11 |pages=1381–1388 |doi=10.1007/s00787-015-0680-x |issn=1435-165X |pmc=4628618 |pmid=25638288}}</ref><ref> {{Cite news |date=2013-07-10 |title=Can science explain why I'm a pessimist? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23229014 |access-date=2024-09-05 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} </ref>

== Criticism ==

=== Pragmatic criticism ===
Through history, some have concluded that a pessimistic attitude, although justified, must be avoided to endure. Optimistic attitudes are favored and of emotional consideration.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Michau |first=Michael R. |title="Doing, Suffering, and Creating": William James and Depression |url=https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mmichau/james-and-depression.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226082217/https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mmichau/james-and-depression.pdf |archive-date=2009-02-26 |access-date=2020-04-22 |website=web.ics.purdue.edu}}</ref> [[Al-Ghazali]] and [[William James]] rejected their pessimism after suffering [[psychological illness|psychological]], or even [[psychosomatic]] illness. Criticisms of this sort however assume that pessimism leads inevitably to a mood of darkness and utter depression. Many philosophers would disagree, claiming that the term "pessimism" is being abused. The link between pessimism and [[nihilism]] is present, but the former does not necessarily lead to the latter, as philosophers such as [[Albert Camus]] believed. Happiness is not inextricably linked to [[optimism]], nor is pessimism inextricably linked to unhappiness. One could easily imagine an unhappy optimist, and a happy pessimist. Accusations of pessimism may be used to silence legitimate criticism.

The economist [[Nouriel Roubini]] (who introduces himself as Dr. Doom) was largely dismissed as a pessimist, for his dire but to some extent accurate predictions of a coming global [[financial crisis]], in 2006. However, financial journalist [[Justin Fox]] observed in the ''[[Harvard Business Review]]'' in 2010 that "In fact, Roubini didn't exactly predict the crisis that began in mid-2007... Roubini spent several years predicting a very different sort of crisis—one in which foreign central banks diversifying their holdings out of Treasuries sparked a run on the dollar—only to turn in late 2006 to warning of a U.S. housing bust and a global 'hard landing'. He still didn't give a perfectly clear or (in retrospect) accurate vision of how exactly this would play out... I'm more than a little weirded out by the status of prophet that he has been accorded since."<ref>[[Justin Fox]] (May 26, 2010). [https://hbr.org/2010/05/what-exactly-is-nouriel-roubini "What Exactly is Nouriel Roubini Good For?"], ''[[Harvard Business Review]]''.</ref><ref>David H. Freedman (2010). [https://books.google.com/books?id=YmLkUrazAsoC&dq=%22nouriel+roubini%22+%22wrong%22&pg=PT95 Wrong: ''Why experts* keep failing us--and how to know when not to trust them,''] [[Little, Brown]].</ref><ref>[[Thomas Palley|Thomas I. Palley]] (2013). [https://books.google.com/books?id=BoqX7rZx-DQC&dq=%22nouriel+roubini%22+%22wrong%22&pg=PA196 ''From Financial Crisis to Stagnation; The Destruction of Shared Prosperity and the Role of Economics''].</ref> Others noted that "The problem is that even though he was spectacularly right on this one, he went on to predict time and time again, as the markets and the economy recovered in the years following the collapse, that there would be a follow-up crisis and that more extreme crashes were inevitable. His calls, after his initial pronouncement, were consistently wrong. Indeed, if you had listened to him, and many investors did, you would have missed the longest bull market run in US market history."<ref>David Lawrence (February 4, 2022). [https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/why-year-ahead-stock-predictions-are-usually-wrong/ "Why year-ahead stock predictions are usually wrong,"] ''[[North Bay Business Journal]]''.</ref><ref>Jayson MacLean (May 6, 2020). [https://www.cantechletter.com/2020/05/nouriel-roubini-warns-of-great-depression-just-like-he-did-last-year-and-the-year-before-that/# "Nouriel Roubini warns of Great Depression just like he did last year (and the year before that),"] ''[[Cantech Letter]]''.</ref><ref>[https://www.moneylife.in/article/market-gurusoverrated-dr-roubini-flopsagain/15015.html "Market gurus:Overrated Dr Roubini flops—again,"] ''[[Moneylife]]'', March 10, 2011.</ref><ref>[https://www.azcentral.com/story/money/business/abg/2014/05/08/much-trust-economists-predictions/8844953/ "How much should you trust economists' predictions?"], ''[[AZ Central]]'', May 8, 2014.</ref> Another observed: "For a prophet, he's wrong an awful lot of the time."<ref name=listen>Joe Keohane (January 9, 2011). [http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/01/09/that_guy_who_called_the_big_one_dont_listen_to_him/?page=full "That guy who called the big one? Don’t listen to him."] ''[[The Boston Globe]]''.</ref> [[Tony Robbins]] wrote: "Roubini warned of a recession in 2004 (wrongly), 2005 (wrongly), 2006 (wrongly), and 2007 (wrongly)" ... and he "predicted (wrongly) that there'd be a 'significant' stock market correction in 2013."<ref>[[Tony Robbins]], [[Creative Planning|Peter Mallouk]] (2017). [https://books.google.com/books?id=k0_jDAAAQBAJ&dq=%22nouriel+roubini%22+%22wrong%22&pg=PA32 ''Unshakeable; Your Financial Freedom Playbook'']</ref> Speaking about Roubini, economist [[Anirvan Banerji]] told ''[[The New York Times]]'': "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."<ref name=Emma>Emma Brockes (January 23, 2009). [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/jan/24/nouriel-roubini-credit-crunch "He told us so,"] ''[[The Guardian]]''.</ref> Economist [[Nariman Behravesh]] said: "Nouriel Roubini has been singing the doom-and-gloom story for 10 years. Eventually something was going to be right."<ref name=Hel>[[Helaine Olen]] (March 30, 2009). [https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/the-prime-of-mr-nouriel-roubini/200990 "The Prime of Mr. Nouriel Roubini"], ''[[Entrepreneur (magazine)|Entrepreneur]]''.</ref>

''[[Personality Plus (Littauer book)|Personality Plus]]'' opines that pessimistic temperaments (''e.g.'', [[melancholy temperament|melancholy]] and [[phlegmatic temperament|phlegmatic]]) can be useful inasmuch as pessimists' focus on the negative helps them spot problems that people with more optimistic temperaments (''e.g.'', [[choleric temperament|choleric]] and [[sanguine temperament|sanguine]]) miss.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

==Other forms of pessimism==

=== Philosophical pessimism ===
{{main|Philosophical pessimism}}
Philosophical pessimism is not a state of mind or a psychological disposition, but rather it is a [[worldview]] or philosophical position that assigns a negative value to life or existence. Philosophical pessimists commonly argue that the world contains an [[Empiricism|empirical]] prevalence of pains over pleasures, that existence is [[Ontology|ontologically]] or [[Metaphysics|metaphysically]] adverse to living beings, and that life is fundamentally meaningless or without [[Teleology|purpose]].<ref>For discussions around the views and arguments of philosophical pessimism see:

* {{Cite book |author-last=Schopenhauer |author-first=Arthur |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=77quzQEACAAJ |title=The World as Will and Representation |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-87184-6 |editor-last=Welchman |editor-first=Alistair |volume=1 |place=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511780943 |author-link1=Arthur Schopenhauer |orig-date=1818 |editor2-last=Janaway |editor2-first=Christopher |editor3-last=Norman |editor3-first=Judith}}
* {{Cite book |author-last=Schopenhauer |author-first=Arthur |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYM0swEACAAJ |title=The World as Will and Representation |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-87034-4 |editor-last=Welchman |editor-first=Alistair |volume=2 |place=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/9780511843112 |author-link1=Arthur Schopenhauer |orig-date=1844 |editor2-last=Janaway |editor2-first=Christopher |editor3-last=Norman |editor3-first=Judith}}
* {{Cite book |last=Benatar |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-s6dDgAAQBAJ |title=The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-063381-3 |location=Oxford |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ligotti |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1HbXYgEACAAJ |title=The Conspiracy Against the Human Race: A Contrivance of Horror |publisher=Hippocampus Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-9844802-7-2 |location=New York |language=en |oclc=805656473}}
* {{Cite book |last=Saltus |first=Edgar |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40079 |title=The Philosophy of Disenchantment |publisher=Project Gutenberg |year=2012 |language=en |orig-date=1885}}
* {{Cite book |last=Coates |first=Ken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_GolAwAAQBAJ |title=Anti-Natalism: Rejectionist Philosophy from Buddhism to Benatar |publisher=First Edition Design Pub. |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-62287-570-2 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Lugt |first=Mara van der |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jb8lEAAAQBAJ |title=Dark Matters: Pessimism and the Problem of Suffering |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-691-20662-2 |location=Princeton, New Jersey |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Sully |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEsVAAAAYAAJ |title=Pessimism: A History and a Criticism |publisher=Henry S. King & Co. |year=1877 |location=London |language=en |author-link=James Sully}}</ref>

=== Political and cultural ===
{{Main|Cultural pessimism}}

Philosophical pessimism stands opposed to the optimism or even [[utopianism]] of [[Hegelian]] philosophies. [[Emil Cioran]] claimed "Hegel is chiefly responsible for modern optimism. How could he have failed to see that consciousness changes only its forms and modalities, but never progresses?"<ref name="Cioran">Cioran, Emil. ''A short history of decay'', pg 146</ref> Philosophical pessimism is differentiated from other [[political philosophies]] by having no ideal governmental structure or political project, rather pessimism generally tends to be an anti-[[system]]atic philosophy of individual action.<ref name="Dienstag" />{{Rp|7}} This is because philosophical pessimists tend to be skeptical that any politics of [[social progress]] can actually improve the human condition. As Cioran states, "every step forward is followed by a step back: this is the unfruitful oscillation of history".<ref>Cioran, Emil. ''A short history of decay'', pg 178</ref> Cioran also attacks political optimism because it creates an "idolatry of tomorrow" which can be used to authorize anything in its name. This does not mean however, that the pessimist cannot be politically involved, as Camus argued in ''[[The Rebel (book)|The Rebel]]'' (1951). Pessimism about the human condition was also expressed by [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes]] (1588–1679).<ref name="Walton Johnson 2012 p. 64">{{cite book | last1=Walton | first1= C. | last2=Johnson | first2=P.J. | title=Hobbes's 'Science of Natural Justice' | publisher= Springer Netherlands | series=International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées | year=2012 | isbn=978-94-009-3485-6 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xalFBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT64 | access-date=2023-03-20 | page=64}}</ref><ref name="Rothman 2017 p. 219">{{cite book | last= Rothman | first= A. | title= The Pursuit of Harmony: Kepler on Cosmos, Confession, and Community | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2017 | isbn=978-0-226-49697-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jII5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA219 | access-date=2023-03-20 | page=219}}</ref>

There is another strain of thought generally associated with a pessimistic worldview, this is the pessimism of [[cultural criticism]] and [[social decline]]. [[Anthony Trollope]] summarised the attitude with gentle mockery in 1880: "Everything is going wrong. [...] Farmers are generally on the verge of ruin. Trade is always bad. The Church is in danger. The House of Lords isn't worth a dozen years' purchase. The throne totters."<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Trollope
 |first1               = Anthony
 |author-link1         = Anthony Trollope
 |date                 = 1 January 2003
 |orig-date            = 1880
 |chapter              = 62: The Brake Country
 |title                = The Duke's Children
 |url                  = https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3622/pg3622-images.html
 |publisher            = Project Gutenberg
 |access-date          = 31 July 2023
}} 
</ref>

[[Oswald Spengler]]'s ''[[The Decline of the West]]'' (1918–1922) popularised pessimism. Spengler promoted a [[cyclic history|cyclic model of history]] similar to the theories of [[Giambattista Vico]] (1668–1744). Spengler believed that modern [[Western culture|western civilization]] was in a "winter" age of decline ({{langx|de|Untergang}}). Spenglerian theory was immensely influential in interwar Europe, especially in [[Weimar Germany]]. Similarly, traditionalist [[Julius Evola]] (1898–1974) thought that the world was in the [[Kali Yuga]], a Dark Age of moral decline.

Intellectuals such as [[Oliver James (psychologist)|Oliver James]] correlate economic progress with [[economic inequality]], the stimulation of artificial needs, and [[affluenza]]. [[Anti-consumerist]]s identify rising trends of [[conspicuous consumption]] and self-interested, image-conscious behavior in culture. Post-modernists like [[Jean Baudrillard]] (1929–2007) have even argued that culture (and therefore our lives) now has no basis in reality whatsoever.<ref name="ben" />

[[Conservative]] thinkers, especially [[social conservatives]], often perceive politics in a generally pessimistic way. [[William F. Buckley]] famously remarked that he was "standing athwart history yelling 'stop!{{'"}}, and [[Whittaker Chambers]] (1901-1961) was convinced that capitalism was bound to fall to [[communism]], though he himself became staunchly [[anti-communist]]. Social conservatives often see [[Western culture|the West]] as a decadent and nihilistic civilization which has abandoned its roots in [[Christianity]] and/or [[Greeks|Greek]] philosophy, leaving it doomed to fall into moral and political decay. [[Robert Bork]]'s ''Slouching Toward Gomorrah'' and [[Allan Bloom]]'s ''The Closing of the American Mind'' are famous expressions of this point of view.

Many economic conservatives and [[Libertarianism|libertarians]] believe that the expansion of [[the state]] and the role of government in society is inevitable, and that they are at best fighting a holding action against it.{{citation needed|date=December 2012}}<ref>
Compare:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Holmes
 |first1               = Jack E.
 |last2                = Engelhardt
 |first2               = Michael J.
 |last3                = Elder
 |first3               = Robert E.
 |year                 = 1991
 |title                = American Government: Essentials & Perspectives
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=ULNm2ykDuScC
 |publication-place    = New York
 |publisher            = McGraw-Hill
 |page                 = 16
 |isbn                 = 9780070297678
 |access-date          = 31 July 2023
 |quote                = [Those] more sympathetic to libertarian views on the role of government have been in the position of fighting a holding action against the growth of government [...].
}} 
</ref>
They hold that the natural tendency of people is to be ruled and that freedom is an exceptional state of affairs which is now being abandoned in favor of social and economic security provided by the [[welfare state]].{{citation needed|date=December 2012}} Political pessimism has sometimes found expression in [[dystopian]] novels such as [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.<ref>{{citation |last= Lowenthal |first= D |title= Orwell's Political Pessimism in '1984' |journal=Polity |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=160–175 |year=1969 |jstor= 3234097|doi= 10.2307/3234097 |s2cid=156005171 }}</ref> Political pessimism about one's country often correlates with a desire to [[emigrate]].<ref>{{citation |last=Brym |first=RJ |title=The emigration potential of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Russia: recent survey results |journal=International Sociology |year=1992 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=387–95 |doi= 10.1177/026858092007004001 |pmid=12179890|s2cid=5989051 }}</ref>

During the [[2008 financial crisis]] in the United States, the [[neologism]] "[[pessimism porn]]" came to describe the alleged [[Eschatology|eschatological]] and [[survivalist]] thrill some people derive from predicting, reading, and fantasizing about the collapse of civil society through the destruction of the world's economic system.<ref name="Lindgren">[http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/53858/ Pessimism Porn: A soft spot for hard times], Hugo Lindgren, ''New York'', February 9, 2009; accessed July 8, 2012</ref><ref name="ABC">[https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=7299825&page=1 Pessimism Porn? Economic Forecasts Get Lurid], Dan Harris, ABC News, April 9, 2009; accessed July 8, 2012</ref><ref name="Mary">''Apocalypse and Post-Politics: The Romance of the End'', Mary Manjikian, Lexington Books, March 15, 2012, {{ISBN|0739166220}}</ref><ref name="Schott">[http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/pessimism-porn/ Pessimism Porn: Titillatingly bleak media reports], Ben Schott, ''New York Times'', February 23, 2009; accessed July 8, 2012</ref>

[[Puolanka]], a municipality located in the [[Kainuu|Kainuu region]] in the northern [[Finland]], has been called the "most pessimistic municipality in Finland",<ref>{{cite web|url=https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2020/01/03/pessimistinen-puolanka|title=Pessimistinen Puolanka|work=[[Yle]]|date=3 January 2020|access-date=25 November 2023|language=fi}}</ref> and in 2019, the municipality gained worldwide publicity when the ''[[BBC]]'' published a video about Puolanka, describing it as the "most pessimistic town in the world".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p07srvm2/the-most-pessimistic-town-in-the-world|title=The world's most pessimistic town|work=[[BBC]]|date=1 November 2019|access-date=25 November 2023}}</ref> Pessimism has a long tradition in the Kainuu region, mostly because Kainuu was a poor region that had often suffered from [[famine]]s in the late 19th century and early 20th century, which is why the region is also called a "hunger land".<ref>Väisänen, Heino (1998). ''Kainuun kansan waiheita vv. 1500 – 1900'', p. 213. Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy. {{ISBN|952-91-0373-5}}</ref>

=== Technological and environmental ===
Technological pessimism is the belief that advances in science and technology do not lead to an improvement in the human condition. Technological pessimism can be said to have originated during the [[Industrial Revolution]] with the [[Luddite]] movement. Luddites blamed the rise of industrial mills and advanced factory machinery for the loss of their jobs and set out to destroy them. The [[Romantic movement]] was also pessimistic towards the rise of technology and longed for simpler and more natural times. Poets like [[William Wordsworth]] and [[William Blake]] believed that industrialization was polluting the purity of nature.<ref name="romanticism">{{cite web |url=http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html |title=Romanticism |publisher=Wsu.edu |access-date=2010-06-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080718052334/http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/romanticism.html |archive-date=2008-07-18 }}</ref>

Some social critics and environmentalists believe that [[globalization]], [[Human overpopulation|overpopulation]] and the economic practices of modern [[capitalist]] states over-stress the planet's [[Balance of nature|ecological equilibrium]]. They warn that unless something is done to slow this, [[climate change]] will worsen eventually leading to some form of social and [[ecological collapse]].<ref>[[The New York Review of Books]] {{cite magazine| url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2006/apr/27/the-global-delusion/| title = The Global Delusion, John Gray| last1 = Gray| first1 = John}}</ref> [[James Lovelock]] believes that the [[ecology]] of the Earth has already been irretrievably damaged, and even an unrealistic shift in politics would not be enough to save it. According to Lovelock, the Earth's climate regulation system is being overwhelmed by pollution and the Earth will soon jump from its current state into a dramatically hotter climate.<ref name="nybooks.com">[[The New York Review of Books]] {{cite magazine| url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/nov/19/a-great-jump-to-disaster/| title = A Great Jump to Disaster?, Tim Flannery| last1 = Flannery| first1 = Tim}}</ref> Lovelock blames this state of affairs on what he calls "polyanthroponemia", which is when: "humans overpopulate until they do more harm than good." Lovelock states:

<blockquote>The presence of 7 billion people aiming for first-world comforts…is clearly incompatible with the homeostasis of climate but also with chemistry, biological diversity and the economy of the system.<ref name="nybooks.com" /></blockquote>

Some [[radical environmentalism|radical environmentalists]], [[anti-globalization]] activists, and [[Neo-luddism|Neo-luddites]] can be said to hold to this type of pessimism about the effects of modern "progress". A more radical form of environmental pessimism is [[anarcho-primitivism]] which faults the [[British Agricultural Revolution|agricultural revolution]] with giving rise to social stratification, coercion, and alienation. Some anarcho-primitivists promote [[deindustrialization]], abandonment of modern technology and [[rewilding (anarchism)|rewilding]].

An infamous anarcho-primitivist is [[Theodore Kaczynski]], also known as the Unabomber, who engaged in a nationwide mail bombing campaign. In his 1995 ''[[Industrial Society and Its Future|Unabomber Manifesto]]'', he called attention to the erosion of human freedom by the rise of the modern "industrial-technological system".<ref>[[The Washington Post]]: Unabomber Special Report: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY AND ITS FUTURE]</ref> The manifesto begins thus: <blockquote>The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in "advanced" countries.</blockquote>

One of the most radical pessimist organizations is the [[voluntary human extinction movement]], which argues for the extinction of the human race through [[antinatalism]].

[[Pope Francis]]' controversial [[Laudato si'|2015 encyclical on ecological issues]] is rife with [[Laudato si'#Technology|pessimistic assessments of the role of technology in the modern world]].

=== Entropy pessimism ===
{{See also|Heat death of the universe|Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen #The relevance of thermodynamics to economics|Ecological economics #Methodology}}
[[File:Diagram of natural resource flows-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.2 |Natural resources flow through the economy and end up as waste and pollution.]]
"Entropy pessimism" represents a special case of technological and environmental pessimism, based on [[Thermodynamics|thermodynamic principles]].<ref name="ra01" />{{rp|116}} According to the [[Laws of thermodynamics#First law|first law of thermodynamics]], matter and energy is neither created nor destroyed in the economy. According to the [[Laws of thermodynamics#Second law|second law of thermodynamics]]—also known as [[Entropy|the entropy law]]—what happens in the economy is that all matter and energy is transformed from states available for human purposes (valuable [[natural resource]]s) to states unavailable for human purposes (valueless [[waste]] and [[pollution]]). In effect, all of man's technologies and activities are only speeding up the general march against a future planetary "heat death" of degraded energy, exhausted natural resources and a deteriorated environment—a state of maximum entropy locally on earth; "locally" on earth, that is, when compared to the [[heat death of the universe]], taken as a whole.

The term "entropy pessimism" was coined to describe the work of [[Romanian American]] economist [[Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen]], a [[List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field|progenitor]] in [[economics]] and the [[Paradigm shift#Kuhnian paradigm shifts|paradigm founder]] of [[ecological economics]].<ref name="ra01" />{{rp|116}} Georgescu-Roegen made extensive use of the entropy concept in his [[Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen#Magnum opus on The Entropy Law and the Economic Process|magnum opus on ''The Entropy Law and the Economic Process'']].<ref name="ngr01" /> Since the 1990s, leading ecological economist and [[Steady-state economy#Herman Daly's concept of a steady-state economy|steady-state theorist]] [[Herman Daly]]—a student of Georgescu-Roegen—had been the economic profession's most influential proponent of entropy pessimism prior to his death in 2022.<ref name="hd02" /><ref name="ck01" />{{rp|545}}

Among other matters, the entropy pessimism position is concerned with the existential impossibility of allocating Earth's finite stock of mineral resources evenly among an unknown number of present and future generations. This number of generations is likely to remain unknown to us, as there is no way—or only little way—of knowing in advance if or when [[Human extinction|humankind will ultimately face extinction]]. In effect, ''any'' conceivable intertemporal allocation of the stock will inevitably end up with universal economic decline at some future point.<ref name="hd01" />{{rp|369–371}} <ref name="jr01" />{{rp|253–256}} <ref name="kb01" />{{rp|165}} <ref name="jm01" />{{rp|168–171}} <ref name="jg01" />{{rp|150–153}} <ref name="js01" />{{rp|106–109}} <ref name="ck01" />{{rp|546–549}} <ref name="ap01" />{{rp|142–145}}

Entropy pessimism is a widespread view in [[ecological economics]] and in the [[Degrowth|degrowth movement]].

=== Legal ===
Bibas writes that some [[criminal defense attorney]]s prefer to err on the side of pessimism: "Optimistic forecasts risk being proven disastrously wrong at trial, an embarrassing result that makes clients angry. On the other hand, if clients plead based on their lawyers' overly pessimistic advice, the cases do not go to trial and the clients are none the wiser."<ref>{{citation |last=Bibas |first=Stephanos |title=Plea Bargaining outside the Shadow of Trial |date=Jun 2004 |volume=117 |number=8 |pages=2463–2547 |publisher=Harvard Law Review}}.</ref>

== See also ==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=14em|
* [[Cynicism (contemporary)|Cynicism]]
* [[Declinism]]
* [[Defeatism]]
* [[Defensive pessimism]]
* [[Depressive realism]]
* ''[[The Devil's Dictionary]]''
* [[Depression (mood)]]
* [[Doomerism]]
* [[Dystopia]]
* [[Fatalism]]
* [[Mood (psychology)|Mood]]
* [[Murphy's law]]
* [[Neuroticism]]
* [[Nihilism]]
* [[Optimism]]
* [[Optimism bias]]
* [[Paranoia]]
* [[Toxic positivity]]
* [[Whig history]]
}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2|refs=

<ref name=ngr01>
{{cite book |last=Georgescu-Roegen |first=Nicholas |date=1971 |title=The Entropy Law and the Economic Process. |url=https://archive.org/details/entropylawe00nich |format=Full book accessible at Scribd |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674257801 }}</ref>

<ref name=ra01>
{{cite journal |last=Ayres |first=Robert U. |author-link=Robert Ayres (scientist) |date=2007 |title=On the practical limits to substitution |url=http://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/7800/1/IR-05-036.pdf |journal=[[Ecological Economics (journal)|Ecological Economics]] |volume=61 |doi=10.1016/j.ecolecon.2006.02.011 |pages=115–128|s2cid=154728333 }}</ref>

<ref name=kb01>
{{cite book |last=Boulding |first=Kenneth E. |author-link=Kenneth E. Boulding |date=1981 |title=Evolutionary Economics |url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionaryecon0000boul |url-access=registration |location=Beverly Hills |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=978-0803916487 }}</ref>

<ref name=hd01>
{{cite book |editor-last=Daly |editor-first=Herman E.|edition=2nd |date=1980 |title=Economics, Ecology, Ethics. Essays Towards a Steady-State Economy. |url=http://www.uvm.edu/~jdericks/EE/Daly_Ends_n_Means.pdf |format=PDF contains only the introductory chapter of the book |location=San Francisco |publisher=W.H. Freeman and Company |isbn=978-0716711780 }}</ref>

<ref name=hd02>
{{cite journal |url=http://www.greattransition.org/publication/economics-for-a-full-world |title=Economics for a Full World |author=Daly, Herman E. |author-link=Herman Daly |date=2015 |journal=Scientific American |volume=293 |issue=3 |pages=100–7 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0905-100 |pmid=16121860 |s2cid=13441670 |access-date=23 November 2016 }}</ref>

<ref name=jg01>
{{cite journal |last1=Gowdy |first1=John M. |last2=Mesner |first2=Susan |date=1998 |title=The Evolution of Georgescu-Roegen's Bioeconomics |url=http://eurekamag.com/pdf/003/003304967.pdf |journal=Review of Social Economy |volume=56 |issue=2 |doi=10.1080/00346769800000016 |pages=136–156 }}</ref>

<ref name=ck01>
{{cite journal |last=Kerschner |first=Christian |date=2010 |title=Economic de-growth vs. steady-state economy |url=http://degrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Kerschner-2010.pdf |journal=[[Journal of Cleaner Production]] |volume=18 |issue=6 |doi=10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.10.019 |pages=544–551|bibcode=2010JCPro..18..544K }}</ref>

<ref name=jm01>
{{cite book |last=Martínez-Alier |first=Juan |author-link=Joan Martinez Alier |date=1987 |title=Ecological Economics: Energy, Environment and Society. |location=Oxford |publisher=Basil Blackwell |isbn=978-0631171461 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ecologicaleconom0000mart }}</ref>

<ref name=ap01>
{{cite book |last=Perez-Carmona |first=Alexander |date=2013 |chapter=Growth: A Discussion of the Margins of Economic and Ecological Thought |chapter-url=http://www.slideshare.net/lucieevers1/growth-in-margin-of-ecological-thought-by-perez |editor-last=Meuleman |editor-first=Louis|title=Transgovernance. Advancing Sustainability Governance|url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-28009-2_3 |doi=10.1007/978-3-642-28009-2_3 |format=Article accessible at SlideShare |location=Heidelberg |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783642280085 |pages=83–161}}</ref>

<ref name=jr01>
{{cite book |last=Rifkin |first=Jeremy |author-link=Jeremy Rifkin |date=1980 |title=Entropy: A New World View. |url=http://www.foet.org/books/Entropy-toc.pdf |format=PDF contains only the title and contents pages of the book |location=New York |publisher=The Viking Press |isbn=978-0670297177 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018045326/http://www.foet.org/books/Entropy-toc.pdf |archive-date=2016-10-18 }}</ref>

<ref name=js01>
{{cite book |last=Schmitz |first=John E.J. |date=2007 |title=The Second Law of Life: Energy, Technology, and the Future of Earth As We Know It. |url=https://secondlawoflife.wordpress.com/contents |format=Author's science blog, based on his textbook |location=Norwich |publisher=William Andrew Publishing |isbn=978-0815515371 }}</ref>

}}

==Further reading==
* Schmitt, Mark, ''Spectres of Pessimism: A Cultural Logic of the Worst'', Palgrave, 2023, {{ISBN|978-3-031-25351-5}}
* Slaboch, Matthew W., ''A Road to Nowhere: The Idea of Progress and Its Critics'', The University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018, {{ISBN|0-812-24980-1}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Pessimism}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Pessimism |volume=21 |short=x}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Contestabile |first=Bruno |title = The Denial of the World from an Impartial View|url = http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/w2bQ5j5xVahrmnPUrjqQ/full|journal = Contemporary Buddhism|date = 2016|volume=17 |pages=49–61 |doi=10.1080/14639947.2015.1104003 |s2cid=148168698 }}
* [https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/pessimism Pessimism by Mara Van der Lugt] in [[The Philosopher]].

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[[Category:Pessimism| ]]
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[[Category:Emotions]]
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[[Category:Depression (mood)]]
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