The subject of positve and negative thinking is very intricate...and should be carefully thought through. I fully support positive thinking...the right kind of positive thinking. At what point does being positive morph into thinking things are fine when they're not...or being gullible...or being dishonest...or not facing reality? Positive thinking is a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways. It can get you out of trouble...and it can get you into trouble. There are politicians, preachers, and gurus who encourage their followers to believe in them, to have faith, or to think positively. Does this often shut down critical thinking? The primrose path can lead directly to a very high cliff.
My goal is to be neither presumptuously positive...or needlessly negative. One of my favorite terms is Positive Response Ablility...where one thinks both positively and negatively to accurately analyze a problem...and then proceeds to formulate a positive solution. If someone warns of a very real problem...are they shut-down, shut-up, and shut-out because they are perceived as being negative? "The bridge couldn't possibly be washed-out...could it? Let's just keep driving. Let's not even slow down. That idiot is always so negative. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!"
We often swing back and forth between 'everything's fine' and 'everything's rotten'. Most things are a mixed-bag. We are so easily attracted to sometimes very dangerous things. We are sometimes easily panicked into a stampede. Edwin Bernays concluded that the masses were dangerously irrational...and must be deceptively controlled and manipulated. In other words "give 'em what they want...tell 'em what they want to hear...and lead them right down the primrose path by the hooks in their noses." The inability to think critically will allow the New World Order to triumph. But hey...extermination and enslavement can't be all that bad. We need to think positively.
