Positive Thinking Is Dangerous (And Really Annoying Too)

In my post The Theory of Positive Thinking, I commented on Yves Smith's observation that delusional, happy thoughts are dangerous. From Yves—

[This] notion has a proud tradition in America and was much in evidence in the run-up to the crisis. It promises that the economy will be fine as long as everyone thinks happy thoughts about it...

Moreover, the Theory of Positive Thinking has been used, upon occasion, to suggest that conditions will only deteriorate if the public examines the financial services industry critically. It isn’t hard to see whose interests benefit from that posture...

Here's what I said about that—

Officially sanctioned "positive thinking" has one overriding purpose: it exists to maintain the status quo. In so far as this directly benefits powerful players on the Imperial stage, who get to keep their exalted positions, it is imperative to maintain a happy stance toward the great potential of our present circumstances, and to extol the even greater benefits we will all experience in the future.

Happy self-serving rationalizations are fraudulent...

Simplistically, we can see the world in three different ways.

1. always positively (the glass is half-full)
2. always negatively (the glass is half-empty)
3. realistically (glass? what glass?)

Realism is rare. It is unfortunate that during the times we live in acknowledging reality tends to converge with excessive negativity. But it is an excessively positive outlook that actually threatens our survival. Denying a problem exists until it is too late to fix it never solved anything.

In the first video, author Barbara Ehrenreich asks the question Did Positive Thinking Wreck the Economy? In the second video, the Onion reports that the first prescription depressant drug has hit the market. Despondex, made by Pfizer and now FDA-approved, is the first drug designed to treat the symptoms of excessive perkiness.