I just finished watching Grease on television. A classic show about teenagers in the 60's. Optimism versus Pessimism. In this ordinary world, which will survive? A tough question that is actually more debateable than at first glance. The typical optimist is always looking ahead. Always ready for whatever comes and always seeing the positive side, which is usually untrue or unrealistic. They are living in a fantasy world, one dominated by false perceptions and false hopes. While most will become dissatisfied with the results of life since things are never as great as they seem, they will never show it pretending that they were once pessimists expecting the worse and only receiving much better than they could have ever hoped. Pessimists, on the other hand, view everything as worse than what they deserve. Not just a glass is half empty or a life is half over, they think that the world owes them a lot more than what they are getting. In many cases this can be destructive. They rip themselves apart because they cannot understand why life is cheating them in such ways. Others become very successful because of their great pessimism. They strive to make the world give them what they deserve; although their cup is half empty, they fully intend to fill it. This appears to stray from conventional pessimism because it does not follow the traditional mainstream views. Suppose there are two companies. One is led by the most optimistic man and the other by the most pessimistic. The optimist will look at the company with pride and unchangeing motives. Things don't work, make the best of it. Out of money, look on the bright side. The pessimist, however, will not accept anything about the company. Sales are up, so what? Landed the account, we could do better. Huge profit increase, much more was possible if everyone would have worked harder. The pessimist will likely see an increase in profits. Employee morale can go down, but in the optimist business, it will go down also as profits continue to decrease. This is not meant to glorify the pessimist though, since they will never really achieve happiness, but rather to justify their actions. This is because the person a pessimist cannot stand the most is an optimist. And vice versa. Ask the pessimist which type of person bothers him the most and he will respond an optimist. Ask an optimist which bothers him the most and he will say no one. Yet deep down, he knows he cannot stand a pessimist. They simply contrast each other too much.