文︰子慧
Optimist是樂觀的人。 Optimistic是形容詞，解樂觀的。 Optimistic是tends to be hopeful and confident about the future or the success of something，凡事向好的方面看，對未來抱有信心和希望。
Pollyanna是an excessively cheerful or optimistic person。 Excessive解過度的，例如︰Excessive eating could damage health.（暴飲暴食有損健康。）Excessively解過分地、過量地。字典解Pollyanna為過度開心和樂觀、盲目樂觀的人。
Pessimist是a person who tends to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen，凡事向壞的一面看，相信最壞的事情都會發生。
Naysayer是one who denies, refuses, opposes, or is skeptical or cynical about something，凡事都唱反調的人。
凡事唱反調
Cheerful和optimistic都是好的，開心和樂觀不是應該愈多愈好嗎？當然，「樂觀」得對可能發生的問題視而不見，這自然有問題，或可能就是所謂的excessively optimistic。 Naysayer凡事唱反調，沒有什麼可以令其滿意。什麼事也寸步難行，因為naysayer只會指出無數的問題，卻永不會提出解決辦法。
海倫凱勒說：”No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”（從來沒有悲觀的人會洞悉星辰的奧秘，航行到新天地，又或為人類精神領域闖開新天堂。）
美國着名傳道人和勵志演講家Robert H. Schuller就說︰”Optimism refuses to believe that the road ends without options.”（相信天無絕人之路，那就是樂觀。）
Winston Churchill說：”A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”（悲觀者只會在機遇中挑問題，樂觀者則在問題中找機遇。）
進步締改變
其實我們身邊有很多naysayers，覺得今天的世界一團糟、經濟不好、社會動蕩、恐襲頻仍。但Gregg Easterbrook在It’s better than it looks中，就告訴我們其實今天的世界比歷史上任何一個時期都要好。
他說很多人有相反的印象，可能是因為進步會帶來改變：
Change may benefit some more than others; even universally（普遍地） desirable change may be greeted with trepidation（驚悸、不安）. As changes occur more frequently, these negative feelings rise, regardless of whether, on balance, changes serve the common good .
他又解釋：
Then pessimism became fashionable（流行的）, starting in academia（學術界）and expanding to the public square, brought there by politicians, social media, and our apprehension（憂慮）regarding change. Today the conventional wisdom（傳統智慧）is that any informed person should feel the world is falling apart. If you don’t think everything is awful, you must not understand the situation.
