Optimism and longevity
Leo que los optimistas viven más años: una gran noticia también para los pesimistas, pues significa que ya les queda menos.
(I read that optimists live longer. That’s good news for pessimists too, because it means they haven’t got as long left.)
— The obvious purpose behind publicising the study I had read (the usual one from the University of Massachusetts, or somewhere of the sort) was to encourage optimism as a way of living longer.
But that presupposes three theses that are more than debatable:
Optimism is voluntary — One can become optimistic at will.
Longevity is universally desired — One wants to live longer.
Longevity is intrinsically valuable — A longer life is, in itself, a good.
From the pessimist’s point of view, by contrast, the prospect of living fewer years simply by being a pessimist can hardly be anything but good news.
Whatever the truth about optimism and longevity, what ultimately matters is not how long we live, but whether everything we have experienced, and everything still before us, has meaning*.
(*) (See: ‘7. If the level of suffering were not high enough’, in Hope as evidence — Not about feelings.)