Furthermore: on positive thinking

It’s nice to know you’ve still ‘got it’, as in being able to write posts that make the reader “spit tea all over the computer screen”.

That was the post on the toxicity of ‘positive thinking’ or as another loyal reader called it, “magical thinking”.

Today’s practical lesson in ‘positive thinking’:

I have to explain the concept of Murphy’s Law to Natacha. Apparently, it hasn’t reached western Africa.

I refer to Murphy’s Law here in attempting to explain my ire over the haircut I got this afternoon. A few months ago, I would have laughed it off. But, I was getting great haircuts each and every time then … because I didn’t have anywhere special to go.

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Getting over the toxic culture of 'positive thinking'

I know that I’ve had a gutful of it (she said, sitting there at the keyboard with a freshly made martini. Natacha’s first attempt at making one…and with my gentle guidance, it’s superb).

Maybe you’re one of the few out there harboring some suspicions - but dare not express them openly - that perhaps the deluge of motivation that we’ve been subjected to over the last few decades is just horseshit.

My brilliant and perceptive step-daughter tuned me into the new book by Barbara Ehrenreich - ‘Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America’ - that deconstructs the lie of positive thinking as it has been practiced … no, actually marketed to America in the last 50 years or so.

 

Positive thinking may not be the only reason we’re in the mess we’re in, but it probably did a dandy job at lubing the ‘tool’.  If that’s the ‘picture’ you’re getting, good for you. You get it.

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