Illusions

I'm reading a new book, PESSIMISM by Joshua Foa Dienstag. Though I'm only into the second chap. it has reinforced some ideas that I have held for some time. We all have our illusions, they are the framework through which we access the world and interact with it.
The positive/negative connotations that we use to describe the good or bad energy of individuals or issues is, I think, a misconception. The issues are 1.) that people do good or bad things (the judgement of which depends on where you're standing) and 2.) That feelings are just responses to stimuli and are neither good or bad , positive or negative. Pessimism is a point of view and like optimism is neither positive or negative or inherently good or bad, though, as Dienstag writes, it has suffered much as a philosophical thread throughout history. Hopefully that will change.
One may wonder what this all has to do with the "nature" of things or photography. A good question. I hope to address this and other questions in future posts. ko