In response to Kelsey - full post here
In case you still think that life will eventually improve, I highly recommend you look into Franz Kafka. I don't think that any happy moments in his life could be looked at in a positive light considering everything else. I think that optimism, in part, is a false hope. Not everything gets better, and if overall your life is lousy, the moment were you are briefly happy is no reason to think it is better, you'll likely be disappointed - which will only make things worse.
Pessimism, however, is also a false despair. Not everything is bad. There are good times and those should be acknowledged as well. Furthermore goodness, is not the lack of badness. There can be good which is not related to bad. You could enjoy reading a book, but not reading a book isn't suffering. If you view hope and despair in this light you will never be satisfied.
The best thing, I think, is to take both the good and the bad into account. You can certainly create more overall happiness with less suffering so it could be beneficial to acknowledge the suffering that you may fix it. If, for instance, you notice that some disease is causing suffering, you should work to search for a cure. In class we suggested that the world was going to be consumed in the sun in a few billion years anyway. However, if we work towards it, we could eventually leave the solar system.
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