quote:

Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On And so we have a generation of people raised and rewarded to be positive in life. Because things are always bound to look up when you only look at the bright side of things rather than the whole truth. Right?

Nope
First sign of any serious trouble in their life they crack, fall down and are unable to cope with failure. We're not talking about the niggly little bits of day to day drudgery, but serious, life-screwing, soul destroying, utter failure.
It's not so much the fact that they are expected to battle through it with nothing more than a smile, happy thoughts and cheery attitude, its the simple fact their psyche is ill-equipped to deal with the enormity of the problem they're now facing and wandering around in some gormless, doe eyed form of denial.
Then, they crack.
Wandering through lifes problems as realistically and bluntly as possible prepares you for the miserable periods by at least rational analysis of it. There is no point in smiling when your house burns down, lose your job and still owe the bank 300k in mortgage repayments because the insurance won't pay up... then in some kind of smart-arse self delusion go "Oh well, least I've got my health!"

Bollocks to that.
Get angry, miserable and pissed off at it, because it sucks, it isn't fair and anyone that doesn't like it or wanders up with some 'helpful advice about staying happy', can essentially ram it up their rectum for all it's worth.
And after the enormity and depth of the crap/how badly you're screwed is realised, then it's time to start picking through it as carefully and tediously as need be to extract yourself from that problem. But there's really no point in trying to be positive about it, because if you fail there again, the damage to any esteem and sensibility you've got left is compounded to the point where you really will end up the lowest form of life and there's no point being happy about being at that level!
You're just locking yourself into a sense of being happy, about being utterly screwed and that's where the real problem starts as your twisting and lying to your own emotional state to the point where the lie, becomes the reality and you're happy being in utter misery.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles I don't think that genuinely happy, confident people are the easiest to control at all.

Unless they are not genuinely happy at all. They've been reading too much Steve Pavlina and self-help books and own too many motivational posters to be convinced that they are unhappy in the least. Well, on the outside, at least. The fears run far deeper and, as you said, fear is a great route for control.

Would you say that the majority of people out there are genuinely happy and confident with their lives?

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

quote:

Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On Would you say that the majority of people out there are genuinely happy and confident with their lives?

Nope.

That's another interesting aspect of the situation, the self-doubt and dishonesty generated by the conflicting messages of "be positive!" and "fear crime, fear terror, and buy lots of stuff or else you'll be inadequate!"

I think people are misunderstanding some things here.. i don't think being positive/negative is necessarily related to the ability of handling problems in your life:

- you can be positive and let that "positive energy" push yourself in a hard situation to keep yourself sane, and realise you can still comeback to a good situation if you fight hard.

- you can be positive and because of it, go into shock when a hard situation comes, because all your life you were never faced with a negative situation, you never thought it could happen to you, and therefore don't know how to deal with it.

- you can be negative and when a tough situation comes, you completely wreck yourself by letting negativity make things look even worse than what they are.

- you can be negative and because of it, not be very surprised when a tough situation comes because your negativity gets yourself always ready for the worst case situation. then you're mentally prepared to handle the situation.

Handling tough situations IMO is more about having a good ability to fight. But overall I'd say positivity tends to help, as long as it's an healthy kind of positivity.

Succeeding in life is all about getting a good balance of things.

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sempre contra a corrente do jogo

i get stressed out and depressed alot, i find listening to music and working out helps alot for me, or going for a walk to clear ur head, take a run.

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AustralianGQ