The Problem with the Optimist and the Pessimist - G.K. Chesterton

hi and welcome my name is dylan hoss and if you're a subscriber here on existential delight you'll know that i'm a big fan of gk chesterton no one has changed the way i see the world as much as he has and i'm certainly not the only one alan watts often quoted chesterton and when i started to really read gk i realized where watts had gotten many of his ideas it seems to be the nature of chesterton's writing to put spirit into to inspire the reader not only does he challenge the way you think but he actually changes the way you think i often tell people that every time i lift my head from the pages of something chesterton wrote the world looks slightly different more full of wonder more interesting and more hopeful each book is like optic surgery and you emerge from it with a slightly clearer vision in the course of his life and these approximates fall short of the true amount he wrote about 200 short stories 4 000 essays several plays several hundred poems and about 80 books he's not the kind of person you can describe in just one sentence but he is the kind of person you can describe in just one word genius with a capital g two of his best known books are the everlasting man and orthodoxy orthodoxy was actually instrumental in my conversion to christianity chesterton provides the reader with the archaeological tools with which to uncover the building of truth and common sense buried in the sand a cathedral of course it is all already there but the modern man does not know and perhaps doesn't want to know how to uncover it gk shows you that it's not only possible to uncover this truth but that it's a joy to do so and once the archaeological dig is complete well you find you now have a home to take shelter in there are many things in the world today which are popular but probably shouldn't be chesterton is a writer who should be popular but isn't it's for this reason that i am trying to popularize chesterton as much as i can this does not mean that everything i release to the public will relate to chesterton but as long as i have the means to reach people i will do my best to convey his ideas in some way in this recording i thought i would share just one observation chesterton makes in his book orthodoxy my favorite chapter in orthodoxy is number four the ethics of elfland which i maintain as one of the greatest chapters ever written and i'll explore that in a future episode but for now we will look to chapter five the flag of the world there is so much we could talk about but i'm going to turn my metaphysical magnifying glass to just what chesterton has to say about the optimist and the pessimist now i've heard two general approaches to optimism and pessimism some say that it's better to be pessimistic about life because you are never disappointed since you were preparing and assuming the worst was going to happen anyway and when something actually does go well for you you're even more pleased due to the contrast caused by your own terrifying expectations and then on the other side of the coin i've heard people say that optimism is better because it makes you a more pleasant person to interact with and that it would be better to be optimistic and turn out to be incorrect than to be pessimistic and be correct to put it in simple terms you'd rather be optimistic and wrong than pessimistic and right now be an optimist or be a pessimist seem to me to be respective answers to the following question what general stance attitude or approach should a person have towards life and the universe one says you should be an optimist and assume that things will work out well the other says you should be a pessimist and assume that things will not work out well now this is obviously an oversimplification but for the purposes of this discussion this general summary suffices well what does chesterton say well he says that neither of these approaches are adequate to say that everything is right and nothing wrong is as nonsensical as saying that everything is right and nothing left chesterton humorously points out that the optimist thinks everything right except the pessimist while the pessimist thinks everything wrong except himself well what is the real problem with these approaches they are at root according to chesterton conclusions that we make about life and this world as if we were visiting and judging it from the vantage point of some other world we consider the pros and cons of this world as if we were house hunting we compare perhaps the fact that we have beautiful mountains and valleys makes up for the fact that we have cancer and rabies to make that judgment though requires a person to be in a position that no one is in we are part of this world and life before we get to decide if we want to be a part of this world and of this life to quote chesterton a man belongs to this world before he begins to ask if it is nice to belong to it he has fought for the flag and often won heroic victories for the flag long before he has ever enlisted to put shortly what seems the essential matter he has a loyalty long before he has any admiration instead of viewing life through the lens of either criticism or approval we should instead view our attitude towards life in terms of a kind of military loyalty my acceptance of the universe he writes is not optimism it is more like patriotism it is a matter of primary loyalty end quote we don't abandon the world because it is miserable it's not a guest house the more miserable it is the less we should abandon it i quote again the point is not that this world is too sad to love or too glad not to love the point is that when you do love a thing its gladness is a reason for loving it and its sadness a reason for loving it more end quote whether optimistic or pessimistic about my country both my optimistic and pessimistic inclinations are reasons to love her more and reasons she needs more love in the same way the cosmic patriot feels optimism and pessimism as inclinations which encourage us to a deeper loyalty towards defending the love of our world even if and especially when it is in a sorry state supposing there was a section of the city which was neglected and run down people don't talk about it and generally avoid going there now if someone who lives there disapproves of the area they'll probably just move somewhere else if given the opportunity but if they approve of the area it likely won't change for the better but what if someone loved this area loved with a quote transcendental tie and without any earthly reason and i now paraphrase chesterton the area would attire itself as a woman does when she is loved we decorate things which are already adorable we do not decorate to hide ugly things a woman doesn't wear a beautiful necklace because she would be ugly without it nor does a man truly in love give her that necklace because he wants to hide her neck if men love that run-down and neglected section of the city the way that mothers love their children because it is theirs the area might one day be quote fairer than florence some might feel this is a fantasy or unrealistic but chesterton argues that this is in fact the actual history of mankind that this is how cities did grow great at the very roots of civilization you had a group of people knotted around what they felt a sacred stone or encircling some sacred well quote people first paid honor to a spot and afterwards gained glory for it men did not love rome because she was great she was great because they loved her and with that i reflect the fact that i am here at all inspires a sense of wonder that goes beyond choosing one attitude or stance or approach over the other because i'm optimistic or pessimistic about a situation i must keep in mind that the mere fact that i'm here at all to experience the situation is itself an expression of my connection to a world far greater than my own point of view of it before i grow too attached to my point of view i'm already attached with allegiance and admiration to the thing which provides me with the opportunity to open my eyes and look out with amazement at the miracles of color and form perhaps we don't need more optimism in the world perhaps what we need is to learn to love the world even when we have reasons to be pessimistic about it and with that we end this recording off i recently conducted an interview with owen cyclops an american artist of great talent and i'll be releasing that episode in the near future please consider subscribing to my channel so that you'll be notified when i do ladies and gentlemen if you enjoyed this discussion and would like to listen to something similar be sure to check out a recent video of mine called the importance of ideals i've put a link to it in the description of this video also if you want to support my work there's a variety of ways you can do that also detailed down in the description and finally please like and share this video with your friends as it really does help the channel grow now ladies and gentlemen thank you so much for listening i really appreciate your time and i hope you have a wonderful day or night wherever you are god be with you

Channel: Existential Delight

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Keywords: gkchesterton, philosophy, optimism, pessimism, motivation, discipline, genius, podcast, thinking, existentialdelight, existentialdeli, chesterton, christian, christianity, thetruth, truthseeker, seeking, dylangous, asmr, relaxing, soothing, voice, relaxingvocals

Id: TkXZwvIJCFA

Length: 11min 42sec (702 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 31 2020