The Pseudo-Religion of Positivity
Last Updated: 7 October, 2023
What Positivity Is: This is a belief that every thought and word communicated must be exclusively in terms desirable concepts, on the basis that the concepts we refer to 'attract' them, however we refer to them, such that only desirable concepts may be discussed. For example, this mindset advocates for 'Peace' rallies instead of 'Anti-War' rallies.
Who the Clergy of Positivity Are:
The clergy of the pseudo-religion of positivity are those who appear to be the most successful, on the assumption that they must therefore be the most wise.
What's Good about Positivity:
It helps to keep people on the positive side of an issue, where a choice is avialable to do the same thing with a more uplifting mindset. For example, rallying for 'peace' instead of 'anti-war' for otherwise the exact same rally.
What's Bad About Positivity:
At first, nothing seems bad about positivity, but when implemented without a broader moral framework, as a complete religion rather than an add-on to an existing and compassionate moral framework, its practitioners tend to exhibit the consequences of its hidden flaws:
Refusal to hear others' problems. In the religion of positivity, other people's problems are not something you should be thinking about: it takes enough effort to get your mind off your own problems, and other people's problems are seen as totally unnecessary and unfair poison to the aura of success you are trying to maintain for yourself. Apparently for this reason, few people even want to talk or be informed about major threats to life on Earth, unless they directly affect them. When such people are in the majority, in a majority-rule system, this avoidance to talk about problems, especially those suffered by others, becomes a very serious obstacle to solving them, however easy that might be if the will to do so existed.
Abandonment of Others in Need. The religion of positivity doesn't just encourage people to think positive, but to associate only with successful people, as though they have an aura of success which will benefit those in close proximity. Conversely, those who are unsuccessful are considered to have an aura of negativity which is toxic and to be avoided.
This attitude leads society to support those successful people who least need it and while abandoning those unfortunate who most need social and emotional support. In experience, it tends to mean that, when you are sucessful, friends seem to come in from all directions, but if you are unsuccessful or a victim of tragedy, you are abandoned until or unless you find your own way out.
Blame of Others in Need. In the view of positivity, misfortune is always the victim's own fault, because, for the theory to be true, they must have somehow attracted the harm upon themselves. On your way to abandoning them, it's common for you to give victims this reason on your way out.
It leads people to face problems in an anti-human attitude. In the positivity mindset, every problem is ultimately someone, not something, becvause their thoughts are seen as the cause.
It derails risk and crisis management. Imaginging something bad could happen (such as a fire) is negative, but it enables us to make preparations (eg. insurance) on which we can better survive. Positivity disallows acknowledgement of risk, before the fact, and crisis, during the fact, as though everything is and will always be OK.
As an exercise, imagine how you would communicate the following things in a way which uses only positive concepts:
Alerting someone that their house is on fire.
Telling someone you've been shot and you need an ambulance.
Telling someone there is a killer in the area and they need to stay inside.
Telling someone to buy a generator in case of a power outage.
There are also historical examples. One is the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917, where the crew suffered shipwreck and being stranded in the Antarctic on Elephant Island: early on there was an abudnance of seals and penguins, and the Crew asked the party leader (John Wild) if they should stockpile seal and penguin meat. The Captain refused, because that would imply they didn't expect rescue for a long time, ie. was negative thinking. The lack of that food caused them to endure being marooned in a cold climate with the additional and unnecessary hardship of starvation.
It actually puts blame on people for preparedness. In the religion of positivity, anyone who prepares to survive a disaster causes it to happen.
It leads to persecution of anyone who gives a warning. Followers of positivity can and have blamed those who warn of danger of actually causing the danger by talking about it. Such is the case, for example, when whisteblowers warned of COVID-19 vaccines being linked to blood clots, they (rather than the vaccines) were blamed as causing those same clots simply because they warned about them. Example: Situation Update, Nov 26, 2022 - Medical journal claims anti-vaxxers cause deadly clots in vaccinated people by SCARING them about vaccine dangers
It tends to prevent awareness on dangers or atrocities which need to be exposed, on the basis that discussing such things is 'negative'. For example, positivity can be used as an excuse to block victims from presenting what they have suffered, on the argument that people don't want to hear 'negativity'. It is actually common for people at social gatherings to block discussion of any topic they deem 'negative', however pertinent.
It helps evil escape and repeat. After an atrocity has happened, the Public has shown a tendency to 'move on' to not discuss it anymore, not even when they have a demoratic authority to hold people accountable, at the very least to remove them from office so they won't do something similar again, because to review the bad things that happened is considered 'negative' psychology and, by the pseudo-religion of positivity, attracts more 'negative' to you.
Unfortunately the lack of any punishment, even for international atrocities, helps the same people remain in position and mindset to do something similar or worse again. For example, some of the same high medical authorities where in charge in the AIDS scare as the H1N1 scare as the COVID-19 scare, resulting in even people with provable natural immunity to a virus being mandated to take an experimental vaccine for that same virus.
It tends to be exaggerated as to its power, supposedly requiring no great training to suddenly have god-level power, but only a change in attitude. Positivity followers actually believe that each one of them can win a million dollars in the same lottery if they are positive enough, but the money isn't there. To them, being positive is more effective than having insurance or practical safeguards. To acknowledge any limits to the power of positivity is against the religion. To believe there are no limits is dangeorus for people to rely on it alone, in case it actually proves inadequate.
It tends to ungratefully ignore other contributing factors to the good outcome. For example, critical injury cases which credit only their positive thinking to their miraculous recovery are probably not telling
the whole truth. More than likely they had extrication by firefighters, a brilliant surgeon, caring nurses, and maybe someone praying hard for them. But if they broke all their bones
and then immeidately stood up healed by their own positive thinking alone then that would be proof. As another example, if a child wanted a new bicycle and focused positive thinking to get it, this mindset encourages them to credit their own positive thinking rather than, for example, who decided to buy it for them.
It encourages recklessness and irresponsibility since risk and repercussions are negative topics which must not be discussed in this belief system. It misses that morality is far more important to focus your efforts of perfection on. We are responsible for our morality more than our success, at least in eternity and before courts of law.
Ultimately it causes absolute evil to be considered good in your view. If you believe that there is no absolute morality, and only what you think about and how you think about it matters, then not only can you ignore the harm your decisions may cause (as a matter of filtering out negative thougths), but there is nothing to stop you from actually viewing what should have been considered evil (objective or absolute evil) as good by a similar wilful conversion of your thoughts on the subject from negative to positive.
Being entirely a method of self-beneift, the religion of positivity is self-focused and therefore evil. It is ironic that it uses a positive method but ultimately the goals are only for self.
What Would Be Better:
There should be no blockage of topics we confront but only how we confront them.
No person should be called negatiev, but only ideas.
Morality should be held as the more important responsibility.
Divine relationship should be held as the more powerful reliance.
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