'Think Positively'

I'm afraid it's not that simple. Isn't this the most unhelpful patronising piece of advice? It's sort of like saying "ignore your own instincts". I recently heard some idiot on the radio harping on about how there's been some new research that recommends positive thinking, and how we should all think positively! Oh stop.

And it's not that I disagree with the benefits of positive thinking. But that's because it's easy to think positively when good things are happening. Other then that positive thinking is something that you can only force so far. I mean lets take somebody who ended up killing themselves; that person probably forced themselves as hard as they could to think positively every day for many years before they finally gave in.

 

Well, you dont want to think positive after a HIV test

 

When I get to build a team, I always look for a few pessimists. Hope isn't a strategy, and I trust fellow pessimists to have planned for eventual failure.

Entropy claims everything.

 

i don't know, it has a lot of competition for that title.

 

When you start off your positivity thread negatively, have you been even trying, bro?

 

First time a metalocalypse meme used on HF.

 

I had to look up metalocalypse! Looks interesting...

 



Oh come. On! You cant steal memes like that

 

i'm sure i've thrown up a "that's brutal" meme at some point.

 

Haha, I'll probably make up for stealing by making some metalocalypse memes, after I watch some of it.

 

Considering my Internet Gf when I was younger ended up banging one of the guys from Metalocalypse, I'm going to agree with the OP.

 

Happy campers you are, happy campers you will be, if you chant "Happy, happy, joy, joy" you will become happy, happy, joy, joyful!

Alternatively, studies have shown those raised in extended families or who regularly pay it forward by lending their own two hands in service their community and who practice contentment, tend to live longer and thrive better in the long run. Happiness is not about you, its about what you do.

 

Some terrible song comes on the radio, and you think to yourself, "Say, this isn't half bad!" and you live longer because you're contented.

 

Attitudinal thinking is very complex. Negative thinking can be self-reinforcing, so can positive thinking. If you have the mental strength, it can help a lot to strive for a positive outlook despite all the shit which life throws at us. Some people collapse under it, others persevere, and are happier for it.

 

I've often thought exactly the same way as this.
But, basically, simplified, humans are probably just like everything else about life; perseverance is key for survival - and ultimately survival of the fittest. So committing suicide is just proving your weakness, allowing others who "think positively" a better chance of success.
We are simply but a life form no different than bacteria/fungal, combating every other natural and environmental hazard that mother nature could possibly throw at us, our species has proved over the last 2k millennia we are the dogs bollocks survivalists compared to everything else on this planet. And yet some people go suicidal. Just think if only their ancestors could see them now, considering the extreme hardships that they had to combat compared to such suicidal deep thinkers these days.

Sheep do not have to feel they are worthless.
"I'm not afraid of an army of wolves led by a sheep, I'm afraid of an army of sheep led by a wolf" - Alexander the Great.

Pep talk or lose.
Think positive or lose.
Disagree then lose. That is life in an absolute nutshell.

 

Suicide is highest among the workaholic Japanese and Dutch. During the last serious recession, thousands of young Japanese men who were unemployable killed themselves in the same forest, out of shame and to make it more convenient to dispose of their bodies. The Dutch tend to leave nasty notes to their employers, blaming them. In general, the workaholic populations of Japan, the US, and EU, are shrinking faster than all others, dying from ulcers and too much Fox News, and too many idiots who think they know the first thing about evolution. Evolution is about diversity, and boom and bust cycles are to be expected, with each culture making tradeoffs.

Suicide among primitive tribes is almost unheard of.

 

Suicide among primitive tribes is almost unheard of. - You ever wondered why that is? - no records?

As for the rest of your comment I'm not sure what you're implying, as obviously every greatest religion, empire, dynasty, monarchy, union in the world ever has contributed to advancing civilisation, regardless of the good and evil of them all.

 

The machines are already better in countless ways, you can argue with them.

 

Why would you assume someone who killed themselves probably tried to think positively for ages before giving in? I meet people all the time who wallow in their difficulties and misery. If you can't think positively, stop thinking of yourself at all and think of someone else.