The Threat of Positive Thinking
Reality and all Its Woes
One of my greatest fears is the fear of being rejected on account of “Positive Thinking.”
It’s a strong critique, and one I wrestle with every day. I consider myself an optimist, but I qualify the term and look at the word itself to wrench out what I believe to be its truer meaning.
As an optimist, I don’t simply believe that we’re going to have a fairy tale outcome, rather I believe that it’s my responsibility to optimize what I have available to me.
In short, it’s an exercise in gratitude — a cognitive practice which has some empirical evidence in efficacy for combating the more destructive manifestations of depression.
Life is, in many respects, murderous and unmerciful.
People who don’t deserve power get power. Laws are changed or ignored which seek to help the weakest people. Inequity abounds, particularly around class, gender, and race.
State religions sometimes seem at best a palliative, and at worst a feel-good silliness that offers license for selfish and exploitative behavior. And even worse a social code built to oppress and control.
All these things are true and, despite all of these realities, the traditions of Philosophy remain.
This is the lamplight I keep trimmed and burning.
Similarly, when one reads the Enchiridion (the Handbook) of Epictetus, or the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, its easy to come away thinking “this is a denial of who we are as people — this philosophy is one of robots.”
The way I read these texts is not as instruction for how to be or what to believe, but rather how to challenge your own mind to build resilience and make room for happiness.
Happiness is one of those slippery words, and can be thought to mean some kind of pleasurable state.
That’s partly why I don’t generally use it. Pleasurable states are lovely, but are spaced few and far between what sometimes seem far greater bouts of ennui and frustration.
Buddhism is sometimes leveled with the critique that it argues passivity in the face of injustice and exploitation, that training the mind to hold a perspective of compassion is a cop-out, and an excuse to remain idle while the world goes to pot and authoritarians take control of everything.
Again, a real critique, and one to sit with and absorb.
And, on a human level, on a day to day basis I, Aaron James McNally, come into contact, interact, and participate with living homo sapiens who, like me, are in possession of Mind, who carry in their bodies the learning of lived experience, and who yearn to find a basic sense of balance in a threatening world.
The so called ideologies which are said to divide us are often seen as the fictions which they are when it comes down to participating in a common goal.
If and when this commonality is discarded, we become subject to the creations of media-makers and dictators, all of whom abound and have far greater power than they deserve, power which we give them.
Acutely aware of my lack in power and influence, I am charged by the potential to act courageously where and when that opportunity arises — sometimes by simply questioning the verity of fake news in conversation, sometimes I might need to become active in a particular political cause. (What that looks like, I’ve yet to see. I’m looking for an issue that calls to me.)
The Polis is a grand and bewildering thing, far too great for my feeble mind to comprehend. Another challenge I’m confronted with is understanding it as best I can where and when this is asked of me.
My greatest challenge in my personal life is to simply keep my relationships in good order, showing gratitude, reverence, and respect.
These give me energy and meaning, help me to tear down walls of isolation and remind me that I am expected to live in an honorable way. For me this includes abstaining from alcohol and taking care of my basic responsibilities.
I don’t know what that looks like for you. Everyone has a unique circumstance and a life to face.
May you find your Way, and may I, where I can, be of some small help to you.
Amiably, Aaron