
The Pleasures of Pessimism - signor_bosco
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/05/25/the-pleasures-of-pessimism/
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jokoon
In scientific prep school the literature theme was "the search for happiness".
I remember hearing the professor saying it was a worthless subject for prep
school students. I've enjoyed reading Seneque and it made me put happiness
into relative terms: once you stop setting yourself impossible goals, lead a
simple life, find humility, have a minimum amount of discipline, you won't be
so unhappy. Not following the advice of others too much is also important.
Feeling fulfilled and content of what you have is also key. I cannot stand
people who complain when they live in a first world country. I find it so
insulting for the entirety of the third world out there.

Being the person that I am, I don't believe in happiness as people talk about
it, and I got interested in what makes people believe in things, it seems to
me that as religion is diminishing, people still seeks to fill their mind with
a belief system. I read so many people on facebook quoting weird happiness,
meditation stuff that makes no sense at all to me.

Honestly there is no point in seeking happiness. The more you want something
the more it tends to run away from you.

What I know, is that people tend to seek happiness just so that they can
attract other people to them, because it is somehow attractive. I find it
desperate. To me happiness is just what drives society to socialize, mate and
keep running, just like a machine.

And I have not even brought what I think how men and women view happiness, I'm
sure there are large differences, especially when you think about the whole
feminism and men's right movements.

~~~
Camillo
> I cannot stand people who complain when they live in a first world country.
> I find it so insulting for the entirety of the third world out there.

Eh, at least people in the third world have a better future to look forward
to. In the first world you can expect decades of watching your country
crumble, wondering if you'll be blessed with death before it gets too bad.

~~~
jokoon
You're right, people in the third world have a better margin for progress, and
people in the first world will be frustrated because it becomes harder to
accomplish any sort of progress. Although you can still do a different kind of
progress in a first world country, but I agree that it's a little more
complicated and not always accessible.

That's why it's important to be humble. If you're not you can still go in
those third world country and accomplish things.

It's entirely natural for first world countries to "get worse" as the rest of
the world improves.

------
pmoriarty
A pessimist (and proto-existentialist) who I've been really getting in to
recently is Giacomo Leopardi.[1]

He's woefully underappreciated outside of Italy, despite being highly
influential on the likes of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.

Check out his _Essays and Dialogues_.[2]

[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Leopardi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Leopardi)

[2] -
[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52356](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52356)

~~~
voidhorse
Just picked up Zibaldone the other day. Scanning through, it's nice to see
some of his notes go beyond a mere pessimistic philosophy--some quite
intriguing little explorations of language are tucked into the book.

It's no wonder he's a bit underrated though--this edition of Zilbadone is the
first complete translation in English... and it was published in 2013! I think
there were some prior translations, but generally Leopardi seems unrepresented
in the English speaking sphere.

I'm excited to dig in once I finish up some other books.

------
bobthechef
cf. Ecclesiastes 1.

~~~
tutufan
I ran across this "book" recently as was impressed by how deep it was,
compared to the vision presented in Sunday School (and a certain 60s pop
song).

It's a bit hard to read. Start here:
[https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/old-testament-of-
th...](https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/old-testament-of-the-
bible/summary-and-analysis/ecclesiastes)

