By VILMAR DEBONA*
The optimism of Elon Musk and the multi-powerful Big Techs is atrocious. Pessimism exists to denounce, even, their atrocities
“Optimism” is a Latin noun optimum, “the best”. “Pessimism”, as a noun of the worst, “the worst”, was born as a mere neologism, but it could well be assumed as a neologism of resistance.
In the philosophical field or under the most diverse cultural layers that ended up dynamizing it, pessimism resists the affirmation of what is supposed to be wonderful, supreme, Absolute. It was created to contest the theses of the “best of all worlds”, with which, from the outset, it denounces those who are left behind or do not fit into this supposedly attractive world. It was not coined to record laments and despair. Pessimism contests the absolutization of reason, knowledge, science and technology, while pointing to the victims that good allows. In critical terms, it does not have much to say about the future, but it can help to unravel the evil of the present, while attesting to the impossibility of compensating for the evil of the past.
Among so many scoundrels with superpowers, who claim to be absolute, today, there is Elon Musk with his machines. By chance or not, whether you are aware of the etymology or not, do you know what Musk's humanoid robot is called? Optimus! If the human world reveals the the worst, it is true that part of this is due to self-proclaimed limitless humans, like Elon Musk, now secretary of “Trumpist efficiency”.
Before reducing itself to the “half full glass,” optimism affirms; before reducing itself to the “half empty glass,” pessimism denies. Optimism affirms and affirms; pessimism denies and resists the positive and the positive-minded. Optimism dominates; pessimism can help free the dominated. In this sense, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, and Mark Zuckerberg are blatant examples of those who embody oppressive optimism. Its victims are not only immigrants, refugees, illegal immigrants deported in chains, LGBTQIA+ people, and impoverished workers in general. They are all those manipulated by their machines of a thousand powers, which carry out the most advanced positive progress. All these victims, believing that they are beneficiaries, embody and actualize the the worst as manipulable parts.
Optimism, especially that of Elon Musk, assumes freedom as positive and unrestricted, and oppresses in its name; pessimism assumes freedom as negative: it only exists to the extent that it denies oppression. The new-old official optimism has dominated the globe since the beginning of time, but it has just assumed power in the nation that is supposedly still the most powerful. It blindly seeks “justice”, is certain in advance of what justice is, of who is worthy of it, and makes a selection to apply it. Pessimism is fond of fighting for less injustice.
Optimism smiles and makes a Nazi gesture. Pessimism does not move beyond the reach of the arm in a Nazi gesture, it does not lament or cry. Pessimism denounces the reason for the gesture, the reach of the arm and the perversity of the laughter.
Optimism justifies pain in the name of a “better future”; pessimism is an expert in the world’s pains, whether individual or social, and would like to ensure that none of them are justified. Optimism, not by chance, is a perfect match for capitalism – in its most varied forms and phases. If it could do so, pessimism would stifle the uncontrollable rage of the – old and new – owners of capital. It would dry up their insatiable desires, it would exhaust their inexhaustible positive, privatizing and accumulating energies; it would like to defeat them in the public square.
Grandiloquent and falsely unconditioned optimism colonizes Mars and installs Starlink in the Amazon Rainforest. Pessimism, this anti-conformist pessimism, mirrors the song by Caetano Veloso, in which “an Indian will descend from a colorful star” and “will land in the heart of the Southern Hemisphere, in America.” The multibillion-dollar optimism of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will guarantee a uniform, smooth, and flat future, wrapped in bubble wrap, controlled by Big Tech. The pessimism of resistance, hopeful without claiming historic victory, will guarantee the past of diversity, with “the most advanced of the most advanced technologies.”
Elon Musk, with his unfailing optimism and as a member of Donald Trump's administration, will make a great Secretary of Government Efficiency. Inefficiency, commonly identified with the pessimism of the common sense, associated with defeat, would have to be, today, the most desired of incapacities. The efficiency of Elon Musk and Donald Trump imposes the stratospheric freedom of some individuals – their own. The pessimism of the suffocated, the voice of the negative of history, will continue to accuse the insane farce by speaking in the name of the enemies, the persecuted and the potential collective death.
It was thinking about historical negativity that Max Horkheimer, the founder of Critical Theory, stated something in a 1956 note that shocks us because of its current relevance: “The negative, negativist spirits, who see and say only what is horrible, only what should not be, who are afraid to name God, what do these spirits want, after all? That things should get better! The positivists act in His name, they say yes to the world and to the Creator. They unite – they are not against sacred values. They always have them on the tip of their tongue. Thus Hitler united the Germans, making the Jews the designated victim; Nasser the Arabs, designating Israel to the role of victim” (Notizen, 1956).
What can we do against the neo-Nazis who are uniting today and, with their absolutely Optimus, unite humanity?
The optimism of Elon Musk and the multi-powerful Big Tech companies is atrocious. Pessimism exists to denounce, even, their atrocities. Aware of this pessimistic resistance, in the 1980s the Brazilian philosopher Olgária Matos summarized the idea when investigating Max Horkheimer's Arthur Schopenhauer: “What unites men is despair and helplessness; what separates them is fanaticism and political divisions.”
Pessimists of the world, unite!
*Vilmar Debona is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC).
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