Savoury Optimism

Is it for good or bad or something else to look on the bright side of many things in life? Is it good to ask a clown about his circus, "It is a drawn-out joke, isn't it?" and then hop away?

There is much literature that relates optimism to good outcomes, yet the effects make a many-coloured picture. The benefits and costs of optimism and pessimism and their interplay depend also on individual personality; the kinds of outcomes that are sought, and thoughtful consideration. (Chang 2001, 362)

A way of resolving the explanatory dilemmas hovering over cult forms and the larger societies they are embedded in, is in part a two-way street: (1) reasoning from data aggregates "down" to single cases, and (2) reasoning "up" from many single cases to valid enough collective outlooks. This combined way of trying to disentangle effects is possible. (Carter and New, 2004, 51)

From optimism to being optimally critical and realistic

Rosalene Glickman, Ph.D., holds that "positive thinking can motivate us to be productive, efficient, and successful," yet she goes on to say that "good" may have a "better". Better go for "optimal thinking" and self-optimisation above optimistic thinking, is her verdict, also telling that optimal thinking is optimal realism and not just optimism. (Glickman 2002, 23). The words she resorts to imply "optimal" is "best, greatest, smartest, most profitable, most outstanding" and several others. She uses them in key questions like "What's the best solution?" "- best opportunity?" and confirms, "It's time to acknowledge that positive thinking is not enough." (Ibid., 7-18, passim)

Why so? (1) It can be used to suppress negativity; (2) It is often no more than wishful thinking; (3) There are varying shades of positive thinking; (4) Less than optimal thinking is not a good mental basis for peak performance, and (5) It can result in making less of situations than we could. (Ibid., 18-33, passim) Glickman says further:

In Learned Optimism [2006], Dr. Martin Seligman states: "If the cost of failure is high, optimism is the wrong strategy. Sometimes we need to cut our losses and invest elsewhere rather than find reasons to hold on." Optimal Thinkers eliminate unnecessary disappointment, because they entertain realistic expectations and focus on optimizing situations within their control. (Glickman 2002, 23)

Susan Webber says in The Dark Side of Optimism (2008) that looking on the bright side keeps us from thinking critically. It sometimes happens. She also points out that some people overdo optimism, and says it is better to build realism.

Are circus clowns and technology freaks being "tapped happy"?

Does the progress of a circus in town make its crew or public better or happier? Dare to ask, "Could spending considerable sums of money on a circus visit in the hope that its parading clown will make spectators freer and happier actually have untoward effect? Isn't a circus like treadmill that leads round and round, round after round? Do some sides to modern technology have similar effects? (Agar 2015)

Wise enough could be good

It may not be good enough just to go for health and live long. There is more to life than that. Getting a job or some sort of remunerative work may be counted in too.

It might be good to forestall the worst and bulwark against it, so that the worst will not happen, or will happen only rarely, and be less devastating, or not happen at all.