So....I'm going to be honest, here. I'm going with the only idea i've had thus far in the past week for this paper half-heartedly, knowing it may fail completely. But, it's what i have, so here it goes.
The idea that I've stuck with is essentially optimism, or more of the lack of it in the world around us today. People today are, simply put, generally unhappy. My argument is essentially that yes, many people have many reasons to be unhappy, i believe that every person can find even more reasons to be happy that to be down with the doom and gloom.
Some potential view points are: that people often compare themselves to those better off than them, causing pessimism, while simply being content with that which you do have can bring even more happiness than those who do have more. Another viewpoint is that the media often says to us what we need or need to do in order to be truly happy. Although following can be quite appealing and enticing, often times you'll find yourself even further from "true happiness", where you were originally aspiring to be. viewpoint may be sound pretty broad, but just looking at the extremes in all areas, to gain a better appreciation, for all that they do have, especially in looking in what they actually made it out of.
This sounds like a great topic, Taylor. And, as it happens, I agree with you. That said, be ready to refute counterarguments. A lot of people don't think there is much to be optimistic about in the world today--there's a lot of crappy stuff going on. What would you say to them?
ReplyDelete-cbh
I really like this topic choice. I agree that people these days aren't very happy. I think you can make some great points in this paper. Goodluck!
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ReplyDeleteI am really interested to hear what you will write in your paper. I used to be very pessimistic (although I slowly find myself developing an optimistic nature) and I was actually quite okay with that. The reason being, I didn't find that my pessimism caused me not to be happy. I thought of pessimism more as a safety net, a way to never be disappointed. Let me explain by presenting to you a scenario.
ReplyDeleteYou are going to a movie. An optimist would be excited to go see the movie, thinking that it is going to be really good. Well a movie has two basic outcomes, it can be bad or good. If the movie is good, then they optimist will be happy that he or she went to go see that movie, because they were right about it being good and they had a good time. If the movie is bad however, the optimist comes away from that movie disappointed, because they were wrong about the turnout of they movie and they didn't like it. A pessimist however, would enter the movie thinking it was going to be bad. If the movie is good, the pessimist leaves the movie much happier than the optimist, because the movie surprised the pessimist, and the pessimist has a good time. If the movie is bad, the pessimist was correct about the movie, and leaves the theater thinking to himself/herself, "Well, I was right" still somewhat satisfied with the movie because they judged it correctly.
So I view pessimism as a safety net, to leave situations in life either pleasantly surprised, or somewhat satisfied. Obviously, no one can enter every situation with absolute pessimism, otherwise, they wouldn't ever do anything. For example, if the pessimist were to say, "Why go to the movie? It's probably not going to be good anyway." No one can go through life completely optimistic either, otherwise they would completely trust everyone they met, which we all know isn't healthy or safe. So I believe that a healthy amount of pessimism is necessary to live life. This healthy amount of pessimism is called "realism" haha sorry nerd joke.
Good luck on your paper Taylor, I know it's going to be great. I didn't mean any disrespect, I simply like to "ride the fence" or sit in the middle on a lot of topics, saying that there is no one definitive answer. I hope I have given you some counter arguments to refute.
jcm
I like this topic a lot. There are a lot of magazine articles and such that are so focused on the negative sides of life, it can be very depressing! I know that realism plays a huge role in life but can't we hope for the best in everything? I hate the attitude when people say, "If I never hope for anything or always expect the worse, then when something turns out for the best I will be happier." I mean really? How do these people live!?
ReplyDeleteI think this will be interesting. We actually talked about this a lot in Sacrament Meeting last Sunday.
ReplyDeleteAEB
Hey Taylor. Sorry I'm posting this on here, but I'm not sure how to get a hold of you. I was wondering what you wanted to do for the omission marks assignment.
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