In fact, Diamond is anything but pessimistic: he believes that most of the world, one way or another, can move toward democracy.
Yet even the most pessimistic analysts believe this is unlikely.
It is equally as pessimistic to believe that the government anytime soon will report accurate numbers.
"I am analytically pessimistic; I believe we are in danger of not doing what we must do for the survivability of human life and its sustainability," he says.
While this may appear pessimistic, we believe that pluralism in the conceptual definitions of the unit of analysis in cultural evolution is not a problem (see also Lyman and O'Brien 2003; O'Brien et al. 2010).
Lots of scientists were "unreasonably pessimistic," says Church, believing that if the government didn't sequence the human genome itself, either Celera Genomics would wind up owning everything or there would be so many gene patents that science would get logjammed by lawsuits.
Some women wished for more "self-regulation", but were pessimistic about this happening, believing instead that state regulation may be necessary.
I am pessimistic on this subject, believing that we will "privatize" the oil to administration-friendly flunkies who will agree to sweetheart deals with well-connected American oil companies.
But those who criticize optimists are often pessimistic themselves, and believe that they are stuck with their attitudes for life.
Beneath a pessimistic exterior, I believe, is this hopeful person, but it's just buried down so deep.
