Pessimism, Optimism, Realism

[James Condor]

Pessimist-complains about the wind
Optimist-expects the wind to change
Realist-adjusts the sails

What factors make one or another? And can one become a realist without first being an optimistic. Can one leap from Pessimistic to realism?

[Jim Eshelman]

I'm not sure this is measurable (at least, not in a simple way) astrologically because I'm not sure it's a simple distinction in human psychology. It would be interesting to see some academic summaries on the psychology of this.

I think optimism and pessimism are highly situational and tied to life experience about specific situations; and that, within that, it fluctuates and shifts over time. I suspect the whole topic ties into happiness research (a giant field that is heavily connected to our expectations measured against our perceptions, i.e., happiness can usually be measured by the extent to which our perception of things meets, falls short of, or exceeds our expectation of them).

You can start simply and (if by "realism" you mean, "Just the facts, ma'am") say that Mercury, Saturn, and Uranus, with some backing from Mars and Pluto, are the most realistic; but it's complicated by, e.g., Mars as contention needing something to be AGAINST, and therefore pessimistic. Yet, is Saturn a realist or a pessimist? I'd need context and history to say which way it will hit. Jupiter can flip between optimism and pessimism based on the how circumstances fit expectations. Bradley called Venus fundamentally a realist (but not in the "facts" way I mentioned above), and in other ways it's probably the planet most immune to pessimism and therefore typically optimistic.

One can talk around the edges of it but, I think, have it completely fall apart when one tries to create rules about it.

My thoughts of the moment...

[James Condor]

I see.