The Deception of Positive Thinking
by Bobby Garner
March 17, 2005
The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking, so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection! But the roots of our individualism remind us that what we are is inseparable from the source from which all others derive; that coercive practices that threaten our neighbor also threaten us. - Butler Shaffer
Are you a positive person?
Do you try to think positively when confronted with difficulties?
Positive thinking is widely seen as a means to avoid or defeat negativity.
Do you try to avoid negative people in the hope of limiting the possibility of being contaminated by their mindset?
Do you also imagine yourself to be a "critical" thinker?
If so, do you realize that critical thinking is the very epitime of negative thinking?
How are you going to solve the obvious contradiction which that presents?
Ask yourself, Why have we been taught to think positively? Could it be that positive thinking makes us less critical of what we hear, see, and feel about our suroundings, and therefore less prone to challenge it in an effective way?
Do you realize that positive thinking carries some extra baggage that you may not wish to be seen with?
The positive thoughts which prompt you to avoid a negative person are actually causing you to be judgemental of that person. At a time when we need to be most critical of what we are being told through our media and alternative sources, our uncritical, judgemental attitudes place us well beyond the reach of those who are in the best position to alleviate that problem. That's true because they are among some of the most negative people around. They see and understand the problems we face, but they are widely ignored because, well, they are just too damned negative. So, we pin labels on them reading "Extremist", "Separatist", "Conspiracy Theorist", etc., etc., etc.
The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale "BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!...". Do you see the similarity between this statement and Satan's words to Eve, "for God knows that in the day you eat of it, even your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil." - Genesis 3:5. Is there any essential difference? 1952 apparently was not a good year for positive thinking (http://www.butler-bowdon.com/powerpositivethinking.htm). Is it any wonder why? This was the Fabulous Fifties after all, when critical thought was still flowing freely, before the social disorganization of the 1960's Counter-Cultural revolution, and long before political correctness took control of the public discourse.
Hegel has been given a bad name because of the perversion made of his Dialectic by the economic socialist, Karl Marx. The effect is that we ignore Hegel, yet the importance of the contradiction and the role it can play in problem solving, not to mention understanding, is perhaps best described by non other than Hegel.
The self-subsistent determination of reflection that contains the opposite determination, and is self-subsistent in virtue of this inclusion, at the same time also excludes it; in its self-subsistence, therefore, it excludes from itself its own self-subsistence [such as the scriptures do when taken literally]. For this consists in containing within itself its opposite determination — through which alone it is not a relation to something external — but no less immediately in the fact that it is itself, and also excludes from itself the determination that is negative to it. It is thus contradiction - Hegel’s Science of Logic
[and the scriptures say ....without this controversy, or contradiction, great would be the mystery of godliness, i.e. universal knowledge. 1 Timothy 3:16]
Learn how to be more negative, but don't loose your balance...
"The fact that fixing the "negative" problem is appreciated as a "positive" outcome is an illustration of the interrelated complexities of positive and negative in practice." - Being Positive Avoiding Negativity,
The Roots of Sound Rational Thinking, by Virginia Vallee,
The Critical Thinking Community
Reader Response:
Very Good Bobby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Multiple koodoes on this one.
Consider: Are positive thinkers, positive that they are thinking?
Frank
Reply:
I'm pretty sure that "positive thinking" is a misnomer. In practice, it functions more like a software program, and produces the same kind of robotic or "learned" behavior. That's why our younger university grads are so much in demand in our accountant run corporations. They just run the program and don't ask too many questions.
Computer Aided Engineering fits well into that situation. They are not required, nor are they allowed to think beyond the menu options of the program. This is a sure guarantee that no new discoveries will be made, just the regurgitation of old concepts. New discoveries spring from ideas. Ideas are the sole product of an educated individual mind in the classical sense.
Our schools are not educating, they are programming our children and doping them with ritalin and other mind crippling drugs so that they cannot think. They'll fit well into our sustainable future.
Thankfully, that plan is not going to work of course, because it violates too many universal principles. It contains within itself, it's own mode of failure.
Regards,
Bobby
Hey Bobby,
This is a vital subject. Excellent, EXCELLENT article.
Keep up the good work.
Tom
Bobby Garner is a researcher on the phenomenon of One-Worldism with an emphasis on the methods and techniques employed in it's attendant deception. He may be reached via E-mail from his Website at www.congregator.net. He welcomes your comments. This article may be posted in it's entirety on any website provided this statement remains attached.
