I don't think a positive attitude stops bad things from happening, it just helps some of us deal with the bad things that do happen.
Okay, I really tried to sit through the whole video, but couldn't. I heard about half and I can identify with her thought process as I have felt like that before. I don't believe in The Secret, Name it and Claim it, or that I can create a new reality for myself.
I don't think having a positive attitude will necessarily change the world around you (but it can sometimes). Having a positive attitude helps you see that in spite of the shit you can still be happy. Life can still be good. Really it's about recognizing the hope and potential in most situations.
I don't think telling someone to have a positive attitude is the answer. I can get a REALLY pessimistic view, hell I was suicidal once upon a time, but I have learned that my perception IS everything. Even if it's not reality how I see it is my reality. So if I can find it within myself to see the positive side then everything is different for ME, but I can't change it for anyone else.
I don't think a positive attitude stops bad things from happening, it just helps some of us deal with the bad things that do happen.
Of course. It's a shame you didn't watch the whole video, because she then says that "pessimism can be just as much a delusion as optimism". i.e. the video is not "an argument in favour pessimism and against all optimism".
I don't disagree with anything you say, I doubt the person who made the video does either.
This isn't a critique, this is a characterization of "positive thinking" as self-delusion. This is fine insofar as "The Secret" and the whole notion that positive thinking somehow magically (or magnetically or quantum mechanically) makes things work out: such notions are, indeed, silly.
It neglects the reason positive thinking is often given as advice: people need it. Yes, you need skills and experience, not just positive thinking, to get a job. But there are lots of people with the former, but not the latter, and for those people, it is actually true that "all they need" is positive thinking.
I'm sure that, yes, the speaker, if confronted with this criticism, would agree with my point, more or less, but I doubt she'd take the criticism to heart. She speaks as one who resents "positive thinking" for causing people to make stupid decisions, for not being realistic. Positive thinking isn't delusional, per se: people are delusional or not, positively or negatively. There's nothing especially more realistic about negative self-delusion.
The point of positive thinking is that when one is thinking realistically, one needs to think in terms of what one can do, not only what one cannot do. If someone is giving you the advice to think positively, the advice is not intended to tell you to "pretend it will all be OK," but rather to get up and take action rather than letting negative thoughts cripple you into inaction.
Ugh. What a nightmare. That crappy sales discourse they try to brainwash people with completely drives me up the friggin wall. I don't know anyone can STAND more than 5 minutes of it. You clearly have a greater forbearance than me. What really bugs me about it is how the basically drub into people that their entire self-worth as a human being is directly related to how much they sell. If you don't sell it means you are somehow defective and worthless and basically you might as well kill yourself.that's an issue that I always find incredibly annoying... and to top it off I used to work in a sales office where we got slapped in the face with a "if you beleive it, it'll happen" ideal every fucking day
not to mention that the man is a total beleiver in it and tends to tell me that I should just think positively every time a job lead doesn't pan out
Fuck that... I've been pretty rediculously optimistic about the world and humanity since I could first SPEAK and am constantly disappointed and surprised because bad things keep happening... therefore I think that it's all bullshit that's just designed to make people feel better about the world and themselves
somehow the poor deserve their meager lot and the ruling classes merit their wealth and power over them.