Why Say Depressive Nihilism Is Wrong And Optimistic Idealism Is Right?

I just read a review of a book by E.M. Cioran, All Gall Is Divided: Aphorisms, where the author of the criticism says that Cioran, because he was a depressive, projected his depression onto the world and saw it through a nihilistic but not true lens and that because he saw so much of himself in the world, his vision is skewed.

I take exception to this. It suggests that a depressive mindset lacks the lucidity for insight into the world.  Most depressives have been found to be very lucid. They are not only capable of deep insight, they are capable of insight that is TOO deep. They possess a deep knowledge of themselves and, as many psychological thinkers have pointed out, a deep awareness of one's own humanity is a deep awareness of humanity in general. The depressive shares many characteristics with the general mass of non-depressed mankind. I'd go so far as to say that even the most optimistic and positive person in the world has at least one closet depressive personality. Try to tell me that there are people who have never had a moment of vertigo when contemplating the absolute inevitability of death and the fact that all we have to comfort ourselves at those times is whatever beliefs about another life we may have.

Also, what exactly makes a more positive, less depressive outlook inherently more realistic? We have no proof that any of our views are objectively, concretely, absolutely correct. There is no voice from the Heavens in post-Biblical days saying, "Don't worry, be happy." What if the depressive is not "mistaken?" If Cioran were so off-base, why is it that many people find so much enlightening in what he has written? Truth is a jungle, you can find anything hiding in there. Just because a truth doesn't appeal to you because it is too negative doesn't make it untrue.

Cioran was a genius. In honor of his life of thoughts on decay, despair, art, the inescapable fact of personal death, culture, religion, I am going to change my picture on my blog to a picture of him. The depressive in me sees an entire, dizzying infinity of insight in his work. I learn more about myself and the universe every time I read him. Don't believe the hype that would have you believe a bleak nihilistic worldview is incorrect just because it isn't pleasing to contemplate. Eternity was not created with aesthetic pleasure as its goal.