Genetic optimism

During my bike ride this morning I expounded on an epiphany I had a few days ago, that people are fundamentally optimistic, that it’s programmed into their genes. Because of their inherent optimism, people refuse to see problems brewing around them until it’s too late to do anything about them.

If one thinks about it, genetic programming to be optimistic helps propagate one’s genes. After all, without optimism, why would a prehistoric man look for food when he has none, instead of simply curling up under a bush and perishing from starvation? He looks for food because he’s optimistic that he’ll find some, and that optimism saves his life. Optimism that he’ll survive, in fact, causes his survival. Since almost everything in our modern civilization, from food and shelter, to economics, to politics, can ultimately be traced back to the roots of genetic propagation, it stands to reason that people are inherently optimistic about everything.

One can see this optimism in practice during the last couple of decades, where optimism about stock and real estate investments fueled their rise, and continues to keep them going despite realistic clues that both are about to be doomed.

One can also see optimism affect the outcome of medical problems. There are many instances of individuals overcoming cancer simply by believing that they would. There are equally many instances of people who died because they expected to. Some of those who died were either not optimistic enough or were pessimistic.

Because of our inherent optimism, we ignore warning signs all around us and continue to believe that things will get better, even as they are getting worse. Only when it’s impossible to deny that the system has collapsed do we stop being optimistic and become realistic. In Nazi Germany, Germans refused to believe the warning signs around them that the country was becoming a totalitarian, warmongering state. Only after Germany was destroyed did that reality sink into the mass population. Today Americans refuse to believe that the economy is about to collapse before their very eyes, if it hasn’t already begun. They also refuse to believe that their country is turning into a totalitarian, warmongering state, which it clearly is.

Those of us who do see these trends have to overcome two sources of resistance: our own genetic programming to be optimistic; and the optimism of other people who keep telling us everything will be okay. Faced with such resistance, it’s hard to believe one’s own eyes. In fact, we want to believe everything will be okay, even though indications to the contrary are bombarding us daily.

I’ve never considered myself an optimist or a pessimist. In fact, I’ve always analyzed things by estimating the best and worst cases and then assuming that the likely case will be in between. Thus, I’ve always considered myself a realist. Others, who are naturally optimistic, probably regard me as a pessimist because I am such relative to them. I suppose my realism, or reduced optimism - optimism-lite - stems from my defective programming to propagate my genes. That lack of programming explains my lack of interest in having children.

Regarding present conditions, I see warning signs everywhere, and daily. I still harbor a slight optimism so I don’t want to believe my own eyes. But now is a critical juncture. Now is the time to act and survive, or hesitate and die. I really feel now is the time to be concerned about self-preservation.

June 3, 2006
Dave Eriqat