Why Do We Assume the Worst?

 

Yesterday, I was in a state of high anxiety as I worried about the outcomes of the election. Fortunately, I was commenting on a post and expressed my concern, and the suggestions, comfort, and humor that were shared were such a great relief for me and for others. We laughed and made fun of each other in the most caring way.

Today, the darkness has descended. There have been all kinds of evidence cited that demonstrate that the Democrats are cheating. Doom and gloom engulf our environments and psyches. I’m not here to criticize these attitudes, but they motivate me to ask a question:

Why do we assume the worst?

Now I know you’ll want to tell me about all the things that already point to mismanagement and cheating: anecdotes of foul play, delays of all kinds, sudden increases in votes for Joe Biden—the list goes on. But what is really driving all this discussion is the mind-chaos that emerges out of one thing: “not knowing.”

“Not knowing” refers to our looking at the near or distant future and realizing that we can try to predict outcomes, but we really don’t know with any kind of certainty what they will be.

And it drives us crazy.

It reminds us that we cannot control the future. It mocks us when we think can somehow predict what will happen. The insecurity and anxiety that comes from Not Knowing, if we remained in that state, could drive us mad. Or at least it feels like it could.

The problem with thinking that we know is that we don’t. We realize that the state of the country, maybe the world, depends on the outcomes of this election. We realize that the Democrats have a history of cheating, and they likely are cheating, but we don’t know where or to what degree they are cheating. We just want to have a fair outcome. Is that asking too much?

Yes, it is.

So, we have a few choices when Not Knowing is playing games with our minds. We can deny its presence and make believe we know the future, and we can prognosticate all the terrible, potential outcomes. Or we can, as my husband says to me, “Suck it up, buttercup!” We can acknowledge our uncertainty and discomfort. And watch events unfold. We have that choice.

I’m choosing to acknowledge, for now, how I hate Not Knowing, and will pick up my knitting, practice my Hebrew, write to a friend.

But I will understand why you may choose to predict the worst.

Just know that you have a choice.

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  1. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    Bryan, I wasn’t saying you shouldn’t complain. Life really sucks sometimes and it seems that everything is against you. You think I didn’t feel that when my car was repossessed and my house foreclosed on and neither my husband nor I could get full time jobs while we owed hundreds of thousands of dollars of non-dischargeable debt?

    But as someone who’s worked in the mental health field, you should be as aware as I am that feeling that life is hopeless is not healthy. Anyone who feels that way should figure out ways to either self-treat or get help. And I can speak from experience that once you stop feeling like life is hopeless and will never get better, you find the strength to make it better where you can and work around the problems outside your control.

    Very fine wisdom, @amyschley. Good for all of us to consider.

    • #31
  2. Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker Coolidge
    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker
    @AmySchley

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    Bryan, I wasn’t saying you shouldn’t complain. Life really sucks sometimes and it seems that everything is against you. You think I didn’t feel that when my car was repossessed and my house foreclosed on and neither my husband nor I could get full time jobs while we owed hundreds of thousands of dollars of non-dischargeable debt?

    But as someone who’s worked in the mental health field, you should be as aware as I am that feeling that life is hopeless is not healthy. Anyone who feels that way should figure out ways to either self-treat or get help. And I can speak from experience that once you stop feeling like life is hopeless and will never get better, you find the strength to make it better where you can and work around the problems outside your control.

    Very fine wisdom, @amyschley. Good for all of us to consider.

    If that’s my purpose, then I’d like folks to actually notice the warning.

    • #32
  3. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):
    That being said, it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and it ain’t over yet. Yes, we have a tough fight against the fraud going on in Wisconsin and Michigan right now, but we also have a tough fighter who thinks the damage caused by illegitimate votes is a greater danger to the Republic than the damage caused by not conceding like a good little boy.

    Thankfully, Trump in 2020 is not Nixon in 1960.

    Exactly. Trump may yet lose, but it’ll be a siege of Masada, not a blitzkrieg into France.

    Sort of, but the analogy doesn’t hold all the way. There were no survivors at Masada. Trump has the contents of Hunter’s laptop. But I’m sure his well-known equanimity will stay his hand …

    BwHAHahahah!

    • #33
  4. Bryan G. Stephens, Trump Avenger Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens, Trump Avenger
    @BryanGStephens

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens, Trump Aveng… (View Comment):

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens, Trump Aveng… (View Comment):

    Hope is a suckers game

    I take pills to shut up that voice in my head. I highly recommend it.

    I am so sorry to complain at all about life.

    I’ll just get busy looking for the next job for the third time in three years.

    Bryan, I wasn’t saying you shouldn’t complain. Life really sucks sometimes and it seems that everything is against you. You think I didn’t feel that when my car was repossessed and my house foreclosed on and neither my husband nor I could get full time jobs while we owed hundreds of thousands of dollars of non-dischargeable debt?

    But as someone who’s worked in the mental health field, you should be as aware as I am that feeling that life is hopeless is not healthy. Anyone who feels that way should figure out ways to either self-treat or get help. And I can speak from experience that once you stop feeling like life is hopeless and will never get better, you find the strength to make it better where you can and work around the problems outside your control.

    I am have not stopped working. I never give up.

    And, I keep losing. The people at the Alamo had not hope of winning but still fought.

    I have no hope of a steady job ever again, because life has taught me in the last three years it won’t happen.

    Hope is not the way forward

    • #34
  5. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    • #35
  6. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    • #36
  7. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    • #37
  8. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    This is an example of the need for scenario planning. You just need to know what you are going to do if something happens whether or not you know that it will happen. 

    • #38
  9. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    A pessimist’s surprises are always happy ones.

    That being said, it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and it ain’t over yet. Yes, we have a tough fight against the fraud going on in Wisconsin and Michigan right now, but we also have a tough fighter who thinks the damage caused by illegitimate votes is a greater danger to the Republic than the damage caused by not conceding like a good little boy.

    Worry, sure, but despair is a sucker’s game.

    Yes, what a needed change from all previous Republican candidates, including Nixon in 1960 (as @drewinwisconsin noted above). President Trump’s fight for Michigan just might help John James cling to victory, keeping the U.S. Senate exactly as it has been for the past two years, only better in fighting temper.

    • #39
  10. 666 Inactive
    666
    @Pseudodionysius

    The life of man upon earth is a warfare, and his days are like the days of a hireling.

    • Job 7:1
    • #40
  11. Mim526 Inactive
    Mim526
    @Mim526

    Bryan G. Stephens, Trump Aveng… (View Comment):

    Hope is a suckers game

    “Now abide faith, hope, and love…”

    • #41
  12. Mim526 Inactive
    Mim526
    @Mim526

    No need to assume the worst when there’s math :-)  There’s serious malarkey being peddled by Democrat enablers.  Take PA/Philly:

     

     

    • #42
  13. RightAngles Member
    RightAngles
    @RightAngles

    oops wrong thread

    • #43
  14. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    The fraud in WI and MI are so blatant and the same nonsense is happening in Philadelphia.

    In 2016, Philadelphia stopped counting votes for 90 minutes but they couldn’t find extra ballots for Hillary.

    I listened to Rush today and he is optimistic the courts will do the right thing.

    I am cautiously optimistic too

     

    • #44
  15. Bryan G. Stephens, Trump Avenger Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens, Trump Avenger
    @BryanGStephens

    Mim526 (View Comment):

    Bryan G. Stephens, Trump Aveng… (View Comment):

    Hope is a suckers game

    “Now abide faith, hope, and love…”

    Suckers game. I have the history to prove it.

    But, hey, lecture me when I am down, because we know that people respond well to that.

     

    • #45
  16. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio…
    @ArizonaPatriot

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I think the worst has already happened: it was not a resounding decisive victory for President Trump.

    A lot of this vote has to do with the virus. There are two schools of thought about where we are in dealing with it, and obviously, given the near 50-50 split, half of the population accepts the “dark winter,” no treatments or vaccines in sight, version of the likely near future.

    Will DeSantis’s gamble pay off this winter? I am rooting for him, and I think it will. So does President Trump.

    Thank goodness the Florida results with their approach to dealing with the virus cannot be suppressed completely by the Democrats.

    Marci, I think that you have an optimistic idea of what the “worst” might be.

    Here’s an alternative scenario.  Biden wins nationwide by 8, and gets 350 electoral votes.  The Democrats pick up 20-30 seats in the House and 8 seats in the Senate, giving them a 54-46 majority.

    Wouldn’t that be a lot worse than where we stand at the moment?

    • #46
  17. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    This is an interesting question… who assumes the worst? the left or conservatives or both?

    Who is generally more pessimistic? 

    more optimistic?

    I think the left tends to be pessimistic while conservatives are more cynical but optimistic

    Correct me if I’m wrong

     

    • #47
  18. ToryWarWriter Coolidge
    ToryWarWriter
    @ToryWarWriter

    I am hearing that there is hundreds of thousands of ballots in swing states.  That have Joe Biden on the top ticket.

    • #48
  19. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    MISTER BITCOIN (View Comment):

    This is an interesting question… who assumes the worst? the left or conservatives or both?

    Who is generally more pessimistic?

    more optimistic?

    I think the left tends to be pessimistic while conservatives are more cynical but optimistic

    Correct me if I’m wrong

     

    I think in ordinary times, you are correct, @misterbitcoin. But this election is not an ordinary time, and I think the circumstances have thrown us for a loop.

    • #49
  20. RyanFalcone Member
    RyanFalcone
    @RyanFalcone

    There are many areas in this country that ooze competence and success. Those places such as Fla, the Dakota’s, Texas all seem to have something in common. There are places in this country that constantly ooze a foul stench with every trial like California, Illinois, NY. They all have something in common. People are noticing, which is why the fraud has to happen but people are noticing.

     

    It seems to me that the data is mounting that Trump has lost. Yeah, I’m disappointed and I’m seeking out like-minded folks to share in that. However, my hope isn’t in politics. I truly believe the holy scriptures when they say that he who digs a pit (for others) will fall into it (eventually). There will be justice somewhere, some time.

    Be of good cheer Susan. Even if the worst happens, we will thrive. You ooze competence with every post as do many others here. It is right to be offended by what is happening. Yet we aren’t as hopeless in defeat as our foes are in victory. The only way to witness the justice we seek is to live it ourselves in the valleys as well as when we are at the mountain top.

    • #50
  21. KevinKrisher Inactive
    KevinKrisher
    @KevinKrisher

    Thank you for this wise and insightful post.

     

     

    • #51
  22. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I think the worst has already happened: it was not a resounding decisive victory for President Trump.

    A lot of this vote has to do with the virus. There are two schools of thought about where we are in dealing with it, and obviously, given the near 50-50 split, half of the population accepts the “dark winter,” no treatments or vaccines in sight, version of the likely near future.

    Will DeSantis’s gamble pay off this winter? I am rooting for him, and I think it will. So does President Trump.

    Thank goodness the Florida results with their approach to dealing with the virus cannot be suppressed completely by the Democrats.

    Marci, I think that you have an optimistic idea of what the “worst” might be.

    Here’s an alternative scenario. Biden wins nationwide by 8, and gets 350 electoral votes. The Democrats pick up 20-30 seats in the House and 8 seats in the Senate, giving them a 54-46 majority.

    Wouldn’t that be a lot worse than where we stand at the moment?

    Thank god GOP will hold Senate. 

    I can’t believe Collins held her seat especially with the rank vote BS in Maine

     

    • #52
  23. J. D. Fitzpatrick Member
    J. D. Fitzpatrick
    @JDFitzpatrick

    Assuming the worst gives you a sense of control over your life. If you assume the worst, and the worst happens, then you get a silver lining: even though the worst happened, you “predicted” it and thus “controlled” it. 

    There are better habits of course, like worrying less about what we cannot change. This thing that some of us are assuming the worst about is something that is out of our control at this point. So it would be better to detach emotionally from the election result and focus on controlling what we really can honestly control and what will enable us to remain productive. 

    I’m not doing that just yet, though—Trump is quite possibly going to go up in AZ, might have already won NV, and seems quite capable of holding PA. 

    And even if he doesn’t win PA immediately, there is the potential for recounts and court fights. 

    What’s great about this guy is that he fights. Let’s find our own things to fight for—not in his spirit, but in the human spirit that we all share. 

    • #53
  24. David Coolidge
    David
    @dwlewis

    MarciN (View Comment):

    I think the worst has already happened: it was not a resounding decisive victory for President Trump.

    A lot of this vote has to do with the virus. There are two schools of thought about where we are in dealing with it, and obviously, given the near 50-50 split, half of the population accepts the “dark winter,” no treatments or vaccines in sight, version of the likely near future.

    Will DeSantis’s gamble pay off this winter? I am rooting for him, and I think it will. So does President Trump.

    Thank goodness the Florida results with their approach to dealing with the virus cannot be suppressed completely by the Democrats.

    CCP needed to unleash the virus to get their stooge in. Let’s hope this is a wake-up call world wide.

    • #54
  25. David Coolidge
    David
    @dwlewis

    Percival (View Comment):

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):
    That being said, it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and it ain’t over yet. Yes, we have a tough fight against the fraud going on in Wisconsin and Michigan right now, but we also have a tough fighter who thinks the damage caused by illegitimate votes is a greater danger to the Republic than the damage caused by not conceding like a good little boy.

    Thankfully, Trump in 2020 is not Nixon in 1960.

    Exactly. Trump may yet lose, but it’ll be a siege of Masada, not a blitzkrieg into France.

    Sort of, but the analogy doesn’t hold all the way. There were no survivors at Masada. Trump has the contents of Hunter’s laptop. But I’m sure his well-known equanimity will stay his hand …

    BwHAHahahah!

    there is two and a half months to see where see where the laptop leads, with a security clearance witness. Joe might even get thrown under the bus by his own people. Could running a treasonous candidate invalidate the election?

    • #55
  26. David Coolidge
    David
    @dwlewis

    J. D. Fitzpatrick (View Comment):

    Assuming the worst gives you a sense of control over your life. If you assume the worst, and the worst happens, then you get a silver lining: even though the worst happened, you “predicted” it and thus “controlled” it.

    There are better habits of course, like worrying less about what we cannot change. This thing that some of us are assuming the worst about is something that is out of our control at this point. So it would be better to detach emotionally from the election result and focus on controlling what we really can honestly control and what will enable us to remain productive.

    I’m not doing that just yet, though—Trump is quite possibly going to go up in AZ, might have already won NV, and seems quite capable of holding PA.

    And even if he doesn’t win PA immediately, there is the potential for recounts and court fights.

    What’s great about this guy is that he fights. Let’s find our own things to fight for—not in his spirit, but in the human spirit that we all share.

    the red flag was the timing of large chunks of Biden votes incongruous with the patterns of other states, also just stopping the count in what looks to be an effort to have time to cherry pick enough votes to flip the result, a Motown and Philly specialty. The Trafalgar pollster even said extra votes would be needed to overcome fraud. 

    • #56
  27. Guruforhire Inactive
    Guruforhire
    @Guruforhire

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):
    Wouldn’t that be a lot worse than where we stand at the moment?

    I think the federal government being illegitimate is worse in its long term effects than 2-4 years of bad government.

    • #57
  28. Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker Coolidge
    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker
    @AmySchley

    David (View Comment):

    Percival (View Comment):

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):

    DrewInWisconsin, Man of Consta… (View Comment):

    Amy Schley, Longcat Shrinker (View Comment):
    That being said, it ain’t over ’til it’s over, and it ain’t over yet. Yes, we have a tough fight against the fraud going on in Wisconsin and Michigan right now, but we also have a tough fighter who thinks the damage caused by illegitimate votes is a greater danger to the Republic than the damage caused by not conceding like a good little boy.

    Thankfully, Trump in 2020 is not Nixon in 1960.

    Exactly. Trump may yet lose, but it’ll be a siege of Masada, not a blitzkrieg into France.

    Sort of, but the analogy doesn’t hold all the way. There were no survivors at Masada. Trump has the contents of Hunter’s laptop. But I’m sure his well-known equanimity will stay his hand …

    BwHAHahahah!

    there is two and a half months to see where see where the laptop leads, with a security clearance witness. Joe might even get thrown under the bus by his own people. Could running a treasonous candidate invalidate the election?

    No, but the electors could be faithless and not vote for Biden, or the House Representatives for a state could refuse to certify the electors’ result. 

    We need to get cracking on exposing Biden, because it ain’t over. 

    • #58
  29. mezzrow Member
    mezzrow
    @mezzrow

    The Biden presidency will live in history as a Corrupt Bargain.

    That said, I’d take John Quincy Adams over Biden in a heartbeat. Let’s see how the next few years roll out and see how the collapse of broadcast news and print media parallels the collapse of the Federalist Party in the wake of the election of 1824. With modern resources at his disposal, what would Andrew Jackson do in this time?

    There’s no script for what comes next, but we can find something it may rhyme with. Lots of questions are to be asked and few answered about shenanigans in the process. If this is a victory for the blob that is the ruling coalition fighting against middle America, it will be pyrrhic.

    Read Matthew 7:24-27 and think of what Biden’s presidency rests upon.

    Be of good cheer. There are fantastic adventures and historic victories to come.

    • #59
  30. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    It’s very distressing not knowing, because that is a big basket that holds more than not knowing. We know the fraud that has been uncovered over the last four years, starting with Trump coming down the escalator, even before the election. We know the lengths that those within our own government and across many platforms will go to unseat Trump. We’ve had our hackles up for so long because of it that this is beyond unsettling – way more so than 2000 and the hanging chads. 

    • #60
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