# Dialectics - 2020-12-20

Earlier today I read a piece on the incredible Hegel's Bagels site,
which I'll go ahead and link below.

https://hegelsbagels.net/archive/

The particular piece I read was "Introduction to the Dialectic of the
Good" where Coleman Gariety describes the good and uses the dialectic
to derive optimism, pessimism, etc. from the good. I do not yet
understand the dialectic in a comprehensive way, but I plan to develop
an understanding of it that will help me study dialectical materialism
and, by extension, Marxism. 

On the topic of the Gariety's piece, though, I'd like to focus on the
dialectical relationship between optimism and pessimism.

I know one too many people that fall into a void of pessimism about
the future and about humans. On some point I understand this sentiment
given the ongoing contradictions going on around us that further
expose the destruction of Earth. However, to conclude that "goodness
is not" without considering its negation, "goodness is" means you are
coming to an incomplete conclusion.

This pessimism is considerably annoying when it's among leftists.
Having a pessimistic view of people without an optimistic view is
taking a non-dialectical approach to viewing the world and is not
having faith in the people. If you don't have faith in the people that
you say you're fighting for, then why are you fighting? Shouldn't you
have at least some faith in the people whose liberation you're
fighting for? If you come to these questions, then it's a good time
to re-evaluate yourself and your way of thinking.

Needing to re-evaluate yourself after self-critique is not a "bad"
thing, and in fact self-critique is important. In the spirit of that,
I invite anyone who may want to critique this post to do it at the
email I've given on the "Contact" page. I am no expert in anything I
write so there's always room to improve my ideas or re-evaluate them,
so if you want to help me do that then go right ahead.