I don't quite agree with that... with one or the other we'd be in a world full of wars, because optimists think they'll win the war and pessimists will think they'll be getting invaded. It's the combination of both that has saved us

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Optimists won't need to start any wars, and pessimists won't want to risk losing. Oil has caused lots of wars, so let's use that as an example. Optimists will say: "Their country has lots of oil that we want, and they won't give it to us, but at least our country will take less of the blame for global warming, so we should just let them keep it." Pessimists will say: "Their country has lots of oil that we want, and they won't give it to us, but if we try to attack they might destroy us and our country will be screwed, so we should just let them keep it." The problem is, if an optimist said what I wrote above, a pessimist would reply: "But if we run out of oil then we won't be able to do anything, and our economy will be screwed. We need that oil." If a pessimist said what I wrote above, an optimist would reply: "Don't think like that. We have a very good chance of defeating them, and even if we lose, it might solve our overpopulation problem. I say we fight!"

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Or an optimist might say 'That country has oil that we want, so why not invade them? I'm confident we'll win,' while a pessimist could say 'That country has oil we want, and without that oil our country will DIE, so we need to invade them.' Optimism is simply to have confidence in a successful outcome while pessimism is to believe the worst will happen. You can't really predict what they would definitely say, because there are a ton of different things they could say that would still be classified as optimistic or pessimistic, but would have different results {e.g., the example you gave versus the one I gave}.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I was actually thinking of exactly what you said, as I read random persons example

by Anonymous 12 years ago

eh... if everyone was optimistic maybe. Because then everyone would be trusting of each other. but a world full of pessimists would be paranoid of other countries taking over their own.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

But they wouldn't risk fighting because they might lose.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

okay, but being a pessimist... lets say i thought someone was going to rob my house, i would get a gun. And of course, i would be trigger happy because i wanted to defend my house from intruders. Therefore, a pessimist would be paranoid and more likely to start a war because they were scared. Boom. Roasted.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

At first I read this as "optimus" and was confused when this wasn't a transformers reference.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Optimists would be like "If we took over this country, we could get this resource and we would win"

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Possibility A. Optimists could see the decrease in gas and could either look for another resource or make the most out of the oil they have left. Possibility B. Pessimists could decide that they were going to run out anyways so why bother. Possibility C. Nobody knows how it would play out because, in theory, it's impossible.

by Anonymous 12 years ago