Repulsive Interactions - Ocean: We in O-Force are all so proud and honored...

30th March 2011

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Ocean: We in O-Force are all so proud and honored to be given the chance to make a difference. You know…these are troubled times for all of us…but I sincerely believe that our greatest enemy…is cynicism.
Myles: She’s so right. Starvation, AIDS, and poverty just pale into insignificance next to bad old cynicism.

—

From Peter Milligan & Mike Allred’s X-Statix #3

I find the cult of positivity in America really disturbing for a lot of reasons. Firstly because it defines positivity as 100% optimism at all times, but also because it sees positivity as tantamount to virtue and goodness, making the acknowledgment of anything negative a sign of moral corruption.

I’m going to come right out and say that Voltaire’s Candide was a pretty formative text for me. I read it when I was a teenager, but unlike the other books I venerated at that age, I find that it only becomes more relevant to the world I inhabit.

There is a callousness and self-interest inherent in so much of the talk of positivity I hear. Books like The Secret, which insinuate that you deserve everything good you get, and that everything bad is born of negativity, inspire, rather than a desire to help others and to change the world for the better, a sense of entitlement and complacency and an excuse to ignore the suffering of others. Phrases like “You have to love yourself before you can love someone else,” while perhaps well-intentioned, deliver the message that being frustrated with yourself makes you undeserving of love and inadequate at loving.

The cult of positivity rewards exceptionalism, not in the sense of being exceptional in what you do, but in the sense of being exceptional in what you have. If you don’t get everything that you want, it is because you are flawed and undeserving. You brought it on yourself with your negativity. Good things only happen to good people, and bad things only happen to bad people.

The cult of positivity is capitalistic in the worst sense, in that it denies the existence of luck and privilege and presumes that everyone is dealt the same hand. People who believe in it don’t feel genuine gratitude when good things happen to them (although they will attempt to give that impression—“I’m so blessed”); they think “I deserve this,” regardless of the actual effort put forth to earn their good fortune. Do millionaires work harder than fast food cashiers? Do people who survive life-threatening diseases “embrace life and positivity” that much more than people who don’t? It sets up a culture where you have only yourself to blame for your lack of success, and contrary to what the cult of positivity will tell you, that is entirely different from personal accountability.

It is no one’s duty to be happy or to see the good in everything. It is everyone’s duty to work hard and help others as best they can. It’s great to look on the bright side, to retain your strength of character and hope that things really can get better, but it is morally vacuous to do so at the cost of actually recognizing the need for change in the world and doing your best to enact it.

Tagged: comics cultural commentary actions speak louder than good vibes