Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Optimism,. Pessimism, Risk taking, the Middle Way
Psychologist Alfred Adler said that the most frequent mistake people make in life is NOT taking ENOUGH risks. I would imagine risk taking requires some optimism. Kissinger said something like "nothing clears the mind more quickly than a complete lack of alternatives." On the other hand a more conservative and pessimistic person may be more proactive and avoid serious harm, failure. The extreme optimist borders on a narcissist in the manic phase of manic depression where they can do anything. Buddha, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and others stressed the importance of the middle way or mean between extremes. If we look at the Iliad and BOOK I, the catalog of ships moored along the beach... we see that Odysseus was MID-MOST with Ajax (the WALL, huge, but slow) being closest to Troy and Achilles (swift footed but less bulwarky) farthest from Troy yet because of his virtue of speed, he was first to meet an oncoming attack. We may assume Ajax was second, and people bounced off his massive chest like some super-hero or incredible Hulk. A virtue in excess may become a vice or impediment.
