The Pathology Of Positive Thinking - Energy Bulletin

[hatrack]

EDIT

However. There is a pathological brand of positive thinking that demands that we be happy at all times, that we neither admit nor experience pain, unhappiness or depression. In order to achieve this type of happiness, the high priests and priestesses of the cult of positive thinking make recommendations like "don't read the news" and "get rid of negative people." In other words, deny reality, hide from reality, and don't let your friends and family experience any real emotions. You don't want to hear about their difficulties with cancer and death, financial troubles and lost jobs - it'll just bring you down. Without all that negativity, you can float about in a bubble of pretense, your life padded on all sides by smiles and affirmations.

That same cultish positivity goes a step further to promote the idea that "wishing makes it so." While research that I've read seems to back up the effects of positive goal-setting and mental envisioning, these people believe that you can magically conjure up riches and wealth just by imagining it - hard enough. Not imagining and then working towards it - but just by being positive and believing.

The dark side of this is that you can then blame people who are poor, unemployed, sick, injured, or diseased for their own misfortune. Nothing to do with the realities of the physical world, history, biology, or sociology. Nothing to do with the unjust and environmentally harmful systems that are built into our society. It's just that they must not be thinking the right thoughts! Those Negative Nellies are bringing all that cancer/genocide/war/infertility/poverty on themselves! If they'd just get with the program, they'd be healthy, rich and happy. I have one friend, for instance, who hates it when I talk about problems like oil depletion. "Enough of that doom and gloom!" she cries. "Let's talk about solutions!" Well, excuse me, but until you understand the depth, breadth and scope of the issue, you can't even begin to imagine the magnitude of the changes that are going to have to occur - and which we are going to have to work towards.

Someone who doesn't understand the fundamental facts around peak oil is likely to think that we can just slap a PV solar band-aid, or some electric car Neosporin, on the problem. Someone who does understand the problem knows that we've got serious gangrene in our system and we're looking at radical amputation of our car culture, entitlement thinking, and globalized industrial consumerism. From what I've read about survival and trauma, one of the keys to dealing with a trauma appears to be avoiding the feeling of helplessness. In that case, in order to deal with the traumas we are experiencing now, and will experience in the near future, we have to believe that we can actually achieve good things by taking action. If positive thinking - looking on the bright side and finding the opportunities - helps you and those around you to prepare for the collapses we are facing - then look on the bright side. It helps me.

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http://www.energybulletin.net/node/51870

[NNadir]

1. Well that about sums it up. We certainly live in a time of magical thinking. n/t

[hatrack]

3. When "The Secret" tops the best-seller list, you know there's a problem . . .

Not that our era is uniquely "blessed" in best-selling bullshit - Bridey Murphy, "Masters of Deceit", the Coue System and mood rings come to mind.

[tinrobot]

2. The neutral mind is where it's at...

Not being overly positive or negative, but just seeing things as they are...

Of course, seeing humans as they are with regards to the planet makes one want to crawl into a hole and hide.