The cult of positive thinking, and the economic collapse

Post Reply New Topic

I found an interesting article on the Ross Institute web site, which tracks cults of all kinds:


http://www.rickross.com/reference/gener ... l1208.html


The cult of "positive thinking" has become a de facto state religion in the US-you usually can't get a job unless you're positive enough-but this article doesn't go far enough. IMO the positive thinking cult led directly to the economic collapse.

Here's how: the cult of positive thinking encourages Americans to think that the life they want-usually lots of effortless money and big kid toys are what Americans are told to want-can be willed into existence. People saw their home equity going up, they were able to cash it out, and spend it on themselves! Hey, this positive thinking stuff works! Or so it seemed. Their home equity kept going up, and they kept spending it. Many speculated in real estate. Prices increased so fast that it seemed that the aggregate positive energy of Americans had produced nirvana-money really COULD be willed into existence!

People were encouraged to cut out all negative thinkers from their lives, a well worn cult tactic to eliminate naysayers and draw the dupe in deeper. After a while, it started to turn ugly-people with Down Syndrome and autism were deemed negative influences, blocks to achieving effortless wealth and goodies. Prenatal testing all but eliminated the birth of new Downs kids. Autistics were stigmatized, and mothers started to kill autistic kids who made them "unhappy"-and were let off light by juries. Autism "advocacy" organizations raced to develop a prenatal test so that autistics could be eliminated from the planet like Downs people were. Those already born were shut out of the job market, forced into wretched lives on welfare, and then castigated as resource wasters.

The American public became one big mass of perky lemmings, racing towards a big old reality check. At the bottom of the cliff, they blamed themselves, and fired up the printing presses. Hey, the President is a positive thinker too, and he can LITERALLY print money! Woo hoo! We all know how this will end. Positive thinking and brainwashed perkiness won't save suburban lemmings from hyperinflation. It won't get them their jobs, toys, homes, lives back. America is about to fall HARD! This cult has had it. The end is near for the positive thinking cult. If Americans don't go looking for somebody to blame, maybe they can come out of this as better people. OTOH, they may not come out of it at all.

I've been watching this trend and it really disturbs me. I want to go back to work, but I'll be looking forward to a life of short-term jobs because of this expectation, and that's just if I can put on the fake and schmooze my way in the door to begin with.

Interesting thread, pezar. I am seeing a psychologist soon and likely I will be having CBT. The outcome of that will be turning my negative thinking into positive thinking I guess.

But I feel strangely resistant to the idea. I want to feel positive on my own, not have to retrain my thoughts and monitor every little thought.

I believe if a person is naturally happy their thoughts become more positive and if they are not happy they will think negatively. So I guess it is about how happy a person is.

Wow, great post! I don't think that the economic collapse was accidental, but rather, a goal. We, as Americans, are going to fall hard, because we have been told for so long that we live in a "free" country.

I don't think it is fair to blame this on American people, themselves. We aren't the first nation to come to this end, but we might be the last. Our government and media have done a really good job of instilling patriotism in something that no longer exists.... BTW, I used to be a Republican, but now I realize that 95 percent of what I have been led to believe is a lie. There is a Democratic lie as well.. google KKK origins... I'm just sayin'.

"Positive thinking" is not without its merits.

It is a fact that how you choose to look at things goes a long way towards the results you tend to get.

However, one should NEVER let optimism blind oneself to the reality of the circumstances.

Survivalists are seen as depressing people. A man wrote an eloquent article detailing how survivalists were the ultimate optimists. Disasters happen. A survivalist believe one can not only survive but do well if adequately prepared.

Yes, you prepare for a horrible event and the misery to come, but you believe it doesn't have to be the end when it happens. Society attributes "preparedness" for disasters (which is not a question of being inevitable, but rather one of being unpredictable), with being depressing or pessimistic.

When you let "positive thinking" blind you to reality, you ignore the warning signs a prudent person would notice and take proper steps to minimize suffering and loss.

Or, as the Yiddish proverb goes, "In God we trust...all others pay cash."

Its pretty much up there with my rant against convenience. The more convenient something is, the more likely it is to be abused, and later ignored. I call it the "Shouldn't have to" complex: ie, a person who is in a higher position will view certain "lowly" chores as beneath him and waste time trying to find someone to do it for him/her. With America, i see our scenario as a fall of Rome . . . stuff is falling apart, and governments puts funds into something that will hopefully entertain the public. Unwillingness to do something necessary becomes a weakness rather than putting effort into fixing the problem immediately when it shows up. Another example is the weak pyramid (metaphorically speaking). The tip of the pyramid is the guy in charge, and from there it filters down through middlemen until it hits the workforce (pyramid's foundation). If the Pyramid is built correctly, the foundation and middle section's weight, however, put too much stress on the foundation and everything comes crashing down.

I love this thread, as I've been feeling frustrated by the "brainwashed perkiness" for a long time now. I agree it's dangerous to go against nature's will by faking overzealous cheerfulness. At jobs I've been persistently reminded to keep a smile plastered over my face at all times. Sorry, but it just isn't natural. I'm not saying I intend to walk into a professional setting with rainclouds looming over my head. I'll even flash a smile at a customer at the end of an exchange, assuming it was a pleasant one. Otherwise, though, I don't see the need for constant enthusiasm, especially when it isn't genuinely felt. I'm able to put my emotions aside and still get a job done - in fact, probably more efficiently so. It seems irrelevant to have to bring emotions into play at the workplace. Then again, they say I have Asperger's Syndrome.

I'm reading a book on this very topic right now! It's by Barbara Ehrenreich, and it's called "Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America".

This is what I thought when I saw the thread too.

What I notice about the "positive thinking" or "optimism" framework is it's not about the idea that one can actually influence the world and make it better. Rather, it's a form of complacency, or even cynicism - "It's too hard to do anything about how the world is, so we might as well slap a smile on and delude ourselves rather than do anything about it that might cause a fuss." In fact, the people who actually do ask why the world is how it is, why it has to be, and why people don't try harder to change it are most often the ones labeled as being pessimistic. The situation has truly become twisted if cynics are the optimists and idealists the pessimists.

CBT is very good at treating Aspergers syndrome and co-morbidities, there are several studies that back it up.

"In summary, it is obvious that the use of CBT interventions has been valuable in treating a number of core characteristics of Asperger’s Disorder and secondary features. The intervention has been practical in treating a variety of secondary disorders, not only anxiety. With research slowly accumulating to support the intervention’s effectiveness, group designs will only enhance support for the treatment’s effectiveness. To date, the research demonstrates the promising effects of CBT intervention, but also highlights the need for adaptations to account for the disorder’s characteristics."

From: COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR THERAPY AND ASPERGER’S DISORDER: DOES TREATMENT INFLUENCE SOCIAL ANXIETY AND THEORY OF MIND? by CARMEN L. HALL

The goal of CBT is to get realistic thinking, if your therapist is not aware of that, he's probably not that good.

What is interesting is that it has been shown that people who are clinically depressed are more realistic in their observations and impressions about the outside world than people who are well. One of the tests was to play a computer game and afterwards give an estimation of how many 'monsters' they had killed during the tests. The 'normal' people guessed 3-4 fold higher than reality, whereas the depressed people were pretty much correct.

Its funny, because I have watched myself recover from depression over the past few years and I sort of regret losing my grounding in reality. Now, most days I seem like most people in terms of thinking mainly about my little things in life instead of the bigger questions, which have receded in importance. I regret this loss - I am returning to the delusion of happiness which most people have, and although I can vaguely remember how nihilistic and cynical I was only a year or so ago, I can't feel it any more. I still think those feelings were reflective of reality and what most people think (including me now most of the time) is a delusion - CBT of course reinforces this delusion - it is needed to keep up the semblance of normality and to not degenerate into suicidal nihilism, but it is NOT the truth, and I still think truth is more important than happiness, even though I can no longer feel what the truth it, but only remember it intellectually from my past experiences. Perhaps 'luckily' for me, I am almost certainly a recurring depressive and I will have another share of 'truth' in the future (last sentence said with strong irony).

You've got a point there.


Who? Us? Naaaww, we wouldn't do that would we?

But, but, but, we have to go looking for someone to blame, keeps us from having to do anything about it ourselves!


Cold and ugly, although true from what I see.
Something not "desirable" to admit to, eh? Spoils one's image.

Um, no offense to most of the american public, but I noticed this two years ago. I was eleven.
And the rest of the world takes this long to notice that we're gluttonous, and can't keep on living like this

Yeah I don't like the whole fake happiness thing.

If you think all postive, you become blinded to reality and are never prepared for any problems.

If you think all negative you also become blinded, as in you never acknowledge the good things in the world.

A realistic approach is the best one. when you acknowledge both the good stuff and the bad stuff.

Some people think hyperbole (positive or negative) is restful, it means nothing gets really close to them because there is always lots of noise and flashing lights and cheering crowds chasing it away.

It can be an emergency measure, or it can be a defense mechanism. It's hard to argue with emergency measures of any kind, but defense mechanisms can be justified or not, depending on the circumstances. Then people have to decide for themselves if there really isn't another way to go for them at the point they're at.