Melancholia totally rocks!!!

[JohnLudi]

Finally...REDEMPTION:


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091102/lf_nm_life/us_mood_memory

[ralfy]

Thanks for sharing that! I'd also like to mention Schopenhauer's essays on pessimism and this reading from such:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb3e7MhHjR0 (External Embedding Disabled)

[JohnLudi]

I loves me some Schopenhauer!  He was brilliant!

[TLR1138]

This is not surprising. I think sadness/depression force you to slow down, whereas being happy and excited makes you speed up your activities. Haste makes waste, as they say. Less attention paid to a situation leads to more mistakes. Happy people are also more prone to self-deception and delusions of grandeur.

I'm one of the "pessimists" at my job, but my analysis of a situation almost always turns out to be right, and the optimists are constantly surprised by every negative turn of events.

[Six Gun Jim]

Every inspector for any kind of critical job I've ever been on is always a deluxe downer, I considered applying of course. 

[ralfy]

Maybe we should use the term "realist" instead.

[ralfy]

Related:

"Processed food link to depression: research"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091102/hl_afp/lifestylebritainhealthresearch

[the Black Hunter]

Maybe we should use the term "realist" instead.

This is a good point i force on people these days whenever they use the term "gloom and doom."   (What they're doing of course is applying a label - often the first step in allowing them to dismiss whatever is being contemplated.  Very popular in our culture "Label then Dismiss.") 

I point out that if you simply talk about the reality of where we are right now, most of it will be gloom and doom.  And that this needn't have been our reality, and perhaps might not have been if we had understood the importance of addressing the bad shit as it crops up instead of dismissing it as nothing more than the product of malcontented imaginings. 

That said, i am a firm believer in realistic positive thinking.  It's hard to motivate yourself -  or anyone else - if the reward is always just avoiding disaster.  But thoughts, like life, must be balanced.  And even in these times, one can find things to be positive about.  Like collapse, for instance.   

[vision-master]

Related:

"Processed food link to depression: research"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091102/hl_afp/lifestylebritainhealthresearch

what a bunch of BS.

Food is always the magic bullet!

Food cures Cancer...... Blah, blah blah.....

[jmhpolar]

What they're doing of course is applying a label - often the first step in allowing them to dismiss whatever is being contemplated.  Very popular in our culture "Label then Dismiss."

Just like the modern stigma attached to such simple words as, "liberal", "conservative", "muslim", "christian", "atheist", "survivalist"...  the list goes on and on.  The label becomes a curse.

That's also the first step in dehumanizing the enemy in warfare.  Makes them seem less than human and thus easier to kill.  It's no coincidence that so many of our racial slurs originated during times of conflict with those very races.

As far as pessimism and optimism go, there's good argument for both.  There is also ample evidence that some individuals are more naturally inclined to one over the other, and that trying to force an individual to see the world through the opposite end actually causes them more stress than being occasionally proven wrong.

[ralfy]

But such views appear in various esoteric writings.

Related:

"Processed food link to depression: research"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091102/hl_afp/lifestylebritainhealthresearch

what a bunch of BS.

Food is always the magic bullet!

Food cures Cancer...... Blah, blah blah.....

[vision-master]

But such views appear in various esoteric writings.

Related:

"Processed food link to depression: research"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091102/hl_afp/lifestylebritainhealthresearch

what a bunch of BS.

Food is always the magic bullet!

Food cures Cancer...... Blah, blah blah.....

  I gotta run the the supermarket............

[Bill Hicks]

As far as pessimism and optimism go, there's good argument for both.  There is also ample evidence that some individuals are more naturally inclined to one over the other, and that trying to force an individual to see the world through the opposite end actually causes them more stress than being occasionally proven wrong.

Personally, my credo is that a pessimist is never disappointed.  Which I think also helps PREVENT depression.  I may be a doom and gloomer in my worldview, but on a day-to-day basis I'm reasonably happy.   

[ralfy]

Why?

But such views appear in various esoteric writings.

Related:

"Processed food link to depression: research"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091102/hl_afp/lifestylebritainhealthresearch

what a bunch of BS.

Food is always the magic bullet!

Food cures Cancer...... Blah, blah blah.....

[vision-master]

Extra Mushrooms pleaze...