The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.
Interpretation
A pessimist finds joy in being surprised by positive outcomes while expecting negative ones.
This quote by George Will humorously highlights the paradox of pessimism. Pessimists often predict negative outcomes and, as a result, are frequently validated in their expectations. However, when things turn out better than anticipated, they experience the pleasant surprise of good fortune, thus experiencing a duality where they are either affirmed or pleasantly shocked by the results of their outlook.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a discussion about attitudes in life, particularly about optimism versus pessimism.
The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.
The cultivation - even celebration - of victimhood by intellectuals, tort lawyers, politicians and the media is both cause and effect of today's culture of complaint.
Correct thinkers think that 'baseball trivia' is an oxymoron: nothing about baseball is trivial.
Constitutional arguments that seem as dry as dust can have momentous consequences.
The civil forfeiture law - if something so devoid of due process can be dignified as law - is an incentive for perverse behavior: Predatory government agencies get to pocket the proceeds from property they seize from Americans without even charging them with, let alone convicting them of, crimes. Criminals are treated better than this because they lose the fruits of their criminality only after being convicted.
Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?
Humor is the best means of surviving in a difficult world.
Never pick a fight with an ugly person, they've got nothing to lose.
There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?
I think a playful critique is good for all of us, and that's basically how I see satire functioning. But I'm not interested in a kind of contemptuous satirical vision; I try always, even when I'm knowingly being satirical, to also be humane, but I mean, let's face it: there's plenty in American life to make fun of, and we all participate in it.
You have to laugh at things in order to let them be what they truly are. Because nothing is only sad. Nothing is only funny. There's context to all of those things.
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind.
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