The most lethal sort of ideological cocktail I’ve seen is the often contrived mixture of a positive attitude with fake optimism, shaken vehemently and rimmed with lime and denial. Not surprisingly, people like danger, and positivity culture is full of these “attitude fanatics” with strict “feel-good” regimens.
At its core, positive thinking involves the mindset that you can choose your own happiness, define your own reality, and that your circumstances are a direct result of your attitude. Positive thinking isn’t just a New Age, hippie phenomenon. We’ve all heard the phrase, “Fake it until you make it,” from all classes and sorts of people. This idea isn’t totally unfounded, and oftentimes can be quite productive. We consciously look for more pleasant outcomes in times of distasteful activity, and it’s therapeutic. Makes life bearable. Provides a coping mechanism for those who really do struggle with their circumstances. A steady equilibrium that rests on normalcy and the pattern of being “OK”.
However, the influx of a “fake positivity” cult of idealist spiritualism is wholly something else that I’ve found really disturbing and problematic. This type of pseudo-wisdom persists with a fair dosage of existential logic, ascribing everything and anything that happens to you as a product of your own choosing. Existence precedes essence. We create our own meaning, deconstruct the pre-existing schools of thought and keep on chuggin’ along. Everything is GOOD, if you say so. Basically, faking happiness will make you happier. If your emotions go the other way… well. It’s your own fault for not trying hard enough. Head straight to jail, don’t collect $200, don’t blame your circumstances and cosmic luck for rolling a 3 and picking up a bad card. Your hand tossed that die, didn’t it? (This sounds like your average Darwinian capitalist, too.)
“MAN IS SO ADDICTED TO SYSTEMS AND TO ABSTRACT CONCLUSIONS THAT HE IS PREPARED DELIBERATELY TO DISTORT THE TRUTH, TO CLOSE HIS EYES AND EARS, BUT JUSTIFY HIS LOGIC AT ALL COST.”
Thoughts create reality. Many proponents of this mantra honestly believe they mean well by rejecting negativity, but fail to realize that their mindfulness is more often a denial of reality. Consequently, their denial of reality precludes other’s realities as well — reducing real social problems to opinionated outbursts. We become involved in a cycle that puts pressure on displaying a pleasant countenance even when it feels painfully and completely insincere. It is too easy to accidentally make one of these insincere affirmations without consideration and contribute relentlessly into the cycle of urging people to just “deal.” Advice laced with micro-aggressive presumptions is painfully useless, at the least — heavily patronizing, at most.
Fake positivity looks like a pill slipped into our rationale that taints our abilities to acknowledge true problems and react genuinely in response.
Fake positivity reflects itself in the refusal to acknowledge social stigmas to instead create a utopic mixing-pot to render the legacies of those communities invisible. Fake positivity looks like when “Be yourself” morphs into “Be what everyone knows you as.” Fake positivity looks like the silencing of minority voices with a sweeping, apparently more “inclusive” #AllLivesMatter comment. Fake positivity looks like pseudo-intellectual “diplomatic” agreements that attempt to identify a compromise between the victim and the oppressor, in which fairness originates from efficiency. Fake positivity looks like a condescending sneer towards people suffering from debilitating neurological and physical disabilities. A slap in the face to survivors of abuse. Fake positivity looks like victim blaming, based on a culture of shaming those who just can’t “get over it.” Fake positivity is a mistreatment of other’s trauma and emotional strain. It is presumptuous, in any case, to assume that one’s way of coping would be universal, or, in a way, better than others. It is irresponsible to assume omniscience and omnipotence over circumstances that aren’t your own, and establish a sort of positivity quota for those perhaps experiencing similar plights. Fake positivity is expecting everyone else to tolerate your freedom of speech because it’s “just an opinion.”
The problem of falsely placed optimism is that it aims to condemn and quell dissenting emotion, when compassion should take precedent. One who persists in ill-informed positivity tends to just wait for things to settle on their own, rather than taking action. The seeming objective of those who participate in this culture of mindfulness is not to try to empathize and achieve positive unity with others, but rather to protect themselves from legitimate, pertinent issues that intrude on their desire to live a comfortable, conservative, non-confrontational, non-controversial life.
As a general observation, enforcers of homogenized happiness perpetuate privilege in its highest form: the ability to afford ignorance.
Disclaimer: None of the opinions expressed above have a concrete history of scientific claim. These critiques are my own, based on personal observations I’ve made regarding social behavior, with reference to my own personal politics and experiences.
“Letting Go Of Emotional Suffering” image found here.