I was just thinking about all the virtue-signalling and posturing that is currently in vogue, and remembered that I\u2019ve sen something similar before: the \u201cpositivity\u201d trend of the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Positivity actually has a legitimate purpose in psychology, as I would know, having been proficient in autogenous training, which is a form of self-hypnosis, where positive formulation of suggestions is paramount. By \u201cpositive\u201d mean statements such as \u201cmy hands are warm\u201d instead of \u201cmy hands are not cold\u201d, and so on. It seems that human mind doesn\u2019t really work well with avoiding undesirable outcomes; basically, if you tell it what you don\u2019t want, you\u2019re not really telling it what you do<\/i> want, which is very much like telling your driver to go \u201cnot to London\u201d. That\u2019s hardly a useful instruction, because \u201cnot London\u201d is quite a large place.<\/p>\n
So, positive suggestions such as \u201cdrive me to Bristol\u201d or \u201cget me coffee\u201d work, and negative suggestions such as \u201cdrive me away from here\u201d or \u201cget me something other than tea\u201d don\u2019t. However, a whole movement of abject charlatanry developed around those basic truths, and \u201cpositivity\u201d and \u201cnegativity\u201d became amoral substitute for good and evil, and right and wrong, in a moral framework that tried to avoid such designations at all cost, in order to avoid any notion of religion.<\/p>\n
You see, there\u2019s a problem with rejecting negativity in expression. While it is true that you need to positively formulate your ultimate goal in order to be able to get there, it is also true that we often don\u2019t have enough knowledge of the goal at the beginning of the journey. For instance, let\u2019s say that you want to reach God, but what is God, exactly, to someone who is a mere beginner? God is something awesome and magnificent at the very extreme end of a multidimensional coordinate system of values \u2013 greatest consciousness, greatest truth, greatest power and so on \u2013 but what does that actually mean? Here, negativity plays an important part, because you can see all kinds of evil and depravity and say, \u201cI don\u2019t know what God is, exactly, but let\u2019s assume he\u2019s in the opposite direction from this\u201d, and such a statement will, of course, not lead you to God directly, but if you practice the virtues that are opposite to the wicked depravities that are abundant in the world and easy to perceive, it will certainly help to move you from the starting point, and trying to imagine virtues by rejecting sins will give you some idea of where you want to be, which is of course not perfect, but \u201cnot perfect\u201d is much better than \u201chorrible\u201d already, and as long as you understand that this is a transitory position and not a destination, I see nothing wrong with it. Hate and disgust directed at evil things imply some sense of goodness and virtue, and this can later be properly formulated, but as beginnings go, hatred and disgust are effective and dynamic enough to give you some momentum. Certainly, that\u2019s not where you want to be stuck permanently, and you do need to transition your understanding from, for example, \u201cI am revolted by all the perversions in modern society\u201d, to \u201cthose things are instinctively revolting because they lie in the direction opposite of God, who is truth, reality and fulfilment\u201d.<\/p>\n
My problem with the positivity movement is not as much that it is wrong; it\u2019s an ideological poison, akin to the modern variety known as \u201ctolerance\u201d and \u201cdiversity\u201d. Positivity on its own can actually be extremely harmful, if it stops you from recognizing and changing things that are obviously wrong; likewise, tolerance for bad things isn\u2019t a good thing, and diversity on its own doesn\u2019t mean anything good, because is it really preferable to have many different bad things, and not one good thing? If you have many things, is it preferable to see them all as equal, or to choose between them based on some criterion of merit? It all looks like some kindergarten ethical philosophy of \u201cnobody is wrong\u201d; in fact, everybody is wrong, and everybody stands to improve, and stupid flattery is of no use whatsoever.<\/p>\n
Without an ethical framework based upon the referential target of the Absolute, all quantitative and qualitative designations are pointless and worthless. What is right and wrong without God as the referential truth? What is good and evil without God as the referential goodness? Of what use is positivity without a referential absolute target? Also, if you understand that a statement \u201cSatan is beautiful\u201d is positive, and a statement \u201cSatan is not beautiful\u201d is negative, it becomes apparent that the entire thing on its own has no moral reference, and is a mere linguistic gimmick. Positivity starts making sense only after you obtain your actual moral reference from a worthwhile theology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was just thinking about all the virtue-signalling and posturing that is currently in vogue, and remembered that I\u2019ve sen something similar before: the \u201cpositivity\u201d trend of the 1990s. Positivity actually has a legitimate purpose in psychology, as I would … Continue reading