{"id":44304,"date":"2014-07-07T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T11:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=44304"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:33:43","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:33:43","slug":"isaac-asimov-on-optimism-vs-cynicism-about-the-human-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/07\/isaac-asimov-on-optimism-vs-cynicism-about-the-human-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaac Asimov on Optimism vs. Cynicism about the Human Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why cynicism is, above all, a disservice to our own happiness.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"asimov_goodlife\"<\/a>\u201cAs long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman,\u201d<\/em> E.B. White wrote in a letter to a man who had lost faith in humanity<\/a>, \u201cthe contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate.\u201d<\/em> A beautiful and soul-expanding counterpart to the power of optimism<\/a> in the human spirit that White advocates comes from science-fiction icon Isaac Asimov<\/strong>, found in his posthumously published It\u2019s Been a Good Life<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 a rich selection of the author\u2019s letters, diary entries, and his three prior autobiographies, edited by his spouse, Janet Jeppson Asimov<\/strong>, which also gave us Asimov\u2019s wisdom on humanism and science vs. spirituality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The book itself is titled after some of Asimov\u2019s last words to his wife, but the most magnificent embodiment of his faith in life\u2019s goodness comes from a letter to one of his friends. Asimov writes:<\/p>\n

To me it seems to be important to believe people to be good even if they tend to be bad, because your own joy and happiness in life is increased that way, and the pleasures of the belief outweigh the occasional disappointments. To be a cynic about people works just the other way around and makes you incapable about enjoying the good things.<\/em><\/p>\n

Asimov later echoed this sentiment in his spectacular conversation with Bill Moyers<\/a> in 1988, in discussing the ideas of heaven, hell, and all the artificial ways in which religion tries to keep human goodness in check:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s insulting to imply that only a system of rewards and punishments can keep you a decent human being. Isn\u2019t it conceivable a person wants to be a decent human being because that way he feels better?<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s Been a Good Life<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, featuring selections from Asimov\u2019s first three autobiographies, In Memory Yet Green<\/em><\/a> (1979), In Joy Still Felt<\/em><\/a> (1980), and the posthumously published I. Asimov: A Memoir<\/em><\/a> (1994), is a fantastic read in its entirety. Complement it with Asimov\u2019s wonderful 1983 Muppet<\/em> magazine interview<\/a> on curiosity, risk-taking, and the value of space exploration.<\/p>\n

\"isaacasimov\"<\/a><\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Brain Pickings<\/em> is the brain child of Maria Popova, an interestingness hunter-gatherer and curious mind at large obsessed with combinatorial creativity who also writes for <\/em>Wired<\/em> UK and <\/em>The Atlantic<\/em>, among others, and is an MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow. She has gotten occasional help from a handful of guest contributors<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 brainpickings.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s insulting to imply that only a system of rewards and punishments can keep you a decent human being. Isn\u2019t it conceivable a person wants to be a decent human being because that way he feels better?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}