The Power of Positive Thinking
“If only we’d stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.”
- Edith Wharton
Once upon a time there was a deep philosopher named Norman Vincent Peale. He believed that Positive Thinking could change the world. It could change your life. It could change YOU. Thinking positive thoughts would make you happier, healthier, wiser, even wealthier. It would clean up the streets, reduce crime. It was The Key.
You might be thinking; “He must have been friends with Joel Osteen and Rhonda Byrne.” And if he’d been contemporary with them, he most certainly would have been. For 54 years he hosted a syndicated radio show called “The Art Of Living”. He was pastor of a megachurch – five thousand people in those days – for 52 years. He was editor of Guideposts magazine and among many other books, the bestselling Power Of Positive Thinking. The philosophical infection he spread was driven deeply into American culture, with the full knowledge and support of politicians and corporations of the day.
Peal had many spiritual grandchildren. If you’ve ever been annoyed by Happy-Happy talk, or told it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown, or that getting laid off is a great opportunity*, Peal is the man you secretly wanted to hunt down, cover with Karo syrup and stake to a fire ant hill. He was the granddaddy of all the DVD, or Delusional Vacuous Denialism, that walked our country and our culture into one privvy-hole after another. He’s the reason you’re an outcast if you raise objections to The Plan.
(Do I even need to say that Ronald Reagan loved Norman Vincent Peale? Even awarded him the freaking Presidential Medal of Freedom. The feeling was most assuredly mutual.)
Anyway, if you’ve been made to feel like a pessimist for pointing out one or more tragic flaws in The Plan, or for suggesting a more conservative approach than “never mind tires and brakes, full speed ahead”, you’ll appreciate this wonderful video on the delusionality, the cruelty, the immorality of Positive Thinking.
h/t Coturnix
And since categorical pessimism is an opposite delusion, I recommend the alternative the author suggests. Enjoy!
NOTES:
- *If your manager inexplicably gives you a crappy little book called Who Moved My Cheese, start sending out resumes.
- (I did laugh out loud when the speaker got to her description of a certain former president. I shall forever think of him that way now.)
- Paradoxically, I think Peale created a deep well of unhappiness and dissatisfaction in the American psyche by creating, through tireless effort, the obsession and expectation of happiness.
If management ever discovers that book, there’ll be a riot. Complete with pitchforks and torches. We put up with a lot of dumb crap, but that’s several bridges too far. <shudder>
Thinking positively can sometimes change your attitude. That’s about all I’ve noted that it ever really accomplishes. People who think there’s more to it than that probably haven’t faced much real trouble in their lives.
If you are thinking positive because you are a positive person than that is okay. I don’t have a problem necessarily with you. But if you then expect me to act the same after a negative event happens in my life because that is how you respond and it works for you, then that is where I get annoyed.
Luckily I haven’t run into too many real life people like that yet.
History is replete with charlatans such as Peale.
I will say this: I thing being happy or unhappy is a decision. Simple as that. Now, I concede that your circumstances, whether of your own making or those thrust upon you, will weigh on that decision making.
Off on a tangent. I think the advent of “mission statements” is one of the worst things ever to happen to the world.
As for “Cheese,” I haven’t read it, and ain’t going to.
I was lucky in my working life to have very little experience with “management.” The short period of time in which I did caused an encounter with “The Seven Habits of Effective People” (or whatever the actual title was). I am suspicious of any book, publication or speech (get a grip those who speak in public!) of enumeration of points. It smacks, somehow, of snake oil. Of course all those “here’s how you ought to think and do things” books” whether loaded with enumerated points or not, are just fraud.
Awesome presentation! Not only do I feel a refreshed and renewed right to my own curmudgeonly behavior, both sides of my brain are a-twitter from the accelerated sketching of somebody else’s comments in real time. Reminds me why I enjoy comics and graphic novels so much. I will definitely be passing this on.