Reverse Thinking

Is pessimism good for you?

Alain de Botton argues, on the BBC website, that pessimism can be good for you.

Now, as it happens, I enjoy reading pessimistic writers like Schopenhauer, upon whom I have written before. But it is simply not true to say that being a pessimist is good for you. Although I like de Botton as a writer and enjoyed his Consolations of Philosophy, I think he is a little misguided here.

Realism is good for you - not pessimism. And what (good) pessimistic writers like Schopenhauer, Chamfort, Nietzsche, La Rochefoucauld and Jonathan Swift do is to knock off our rose-coloured spectacles. Reminding us that life can be terrible, fortune a joke, and other people often untrustworthy. Good pessimistic writers (especially if they happen to be funny) toughen us up. A good example is Kurt Vonnegut, upon whom I have also written before. Another is Gulliver's Travels.

But taking a bleak view of life is simply self-defeating and, in fact, it is yet one more defect of Headmind. Headmind isn't clever when it leaves out the humour and focuses on failure and unhappiness; it is downright dumb. And that attitude leads also to self-pity and the victim position. Unrelenting pessimism leads straight to depression.

It is a strange facet of Headmind that it tends to swing between exaggerated pessimism and exagerrated optimism. On the one side Victor Meldrew and on the other Pollyana. Realism lies somewhere in the middle. And reading pessimistic writers with a sense of humour helps us stay there. As does listening to great comedians like Billy Connolly.

I will write a little more about cultivating realism in my next post.

 

How to change the world of our children with one cartoon

 

I have praised the TED videos before in another article I wrote about Jill Bolte Taylor - presenting hundreds of bright, talented, out-of-the-box thinkers talking about everything from what it feels like after you have had a stroke, to what you can learn from light bulbs, and about what, actually, the abbreviated term 'God' might mean.

Sir Ken Robinson is one of the foremost advocates of the view that, if we are to build a better life for our children, we have to teach them to think in a different way. A view I have canvassed before in my previous article - Emotional intelligence classes for our children please.

This ten minute cartoon will make you think and, better still, go out there and do something that will make your children - or other peoples' children - have a better life.

One thing I can predict - you will never think about schools and universities in the same way after you have seen it.

Many thanks to my good friend - Max Coates, over at the Institute for Education here in London - for sending this video my way.

 

 

 

 

Russell Brand, Amy Winehouse and the tragedy of addiction

 

 

 

Until last week I knew nothing about Russell Brand, the person, aside from the usual media tripe about his career and his relationship with Katy Perry.

The little I know about him relates to his appearances in St Trinian's (good film) Forgetting Sarah Marshall (excellent film) and his reputation as a piss-taker.

Example:

"Bob Geldof knows a lot about famine - he's been dining out on ' I Don't Like Mondays' for thirty years."

I was struck by his honesty in the article (below) he wrote on the death of Amy Winehouse. As an ex-addict himself he writes with insight. One line from the article that stood out for me was:

"The priority of any addict is to anaesthetise the pain of living to ease the passage of the day with some purchased relief."

He also describes the wait for the 'phone call that never comes' while watching someone like Amy slowly kill themselves.

Using drugs or alcohol to wipe away pain fits with many addicts I have met (particularly those on heroin or alcohol). Although many other addicts, too, have different reasons for using: boredom, habituation, and nihilism being just three more.

But, as Russell himself writes, anyone can stop an addiction at any time. And if you don't know how you only have to pick up the phone.

I have written about six ways to get ride of an addiction here.

You can read Russell Brand's article on his blog on the link below:

For Amy Winehouse

 

Image by pdama