The Dark Side of Positive Thinking

Written on Friday, July 18th, 2008 at 3:35 am | by chuck

For book readers out there, i don’t know if your experience is the same, but i remember when i was young, my own reading interests tended to go by phases, i.e. clustering around a particular subject matter for a specific period of time. First it was books on the Occult, then Bible Stories and eventually, i turned to books on Economics and Business. Somewhere along the way, i got to reading books on Positive Thinking i.e. works by Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale with titles like ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’, ‘You can if you think you Can’ and the like. The lessons of these works stuck with me and have influenced my outlook in life. My personal experience since then has validated these lessons, i.e. that a positive attitude does make a difference, it is useful to maintain an outlook that you are the master of your destiny, and that the world does not owe you anything that you haven’t worked for. Unfortunately, even positive thinking has a dark side, which brings me to the subject of this post.

Yesterday, Benign0 published an essay that is meant to inspire action among Filipinos, urging self-reliance instead of dependence on the ‘elites’ for salvation. That’s well and good as far as such exhortations go but it comes at a cost, which is, if you are to adopt an attitude of self-reliance and consider yourself the master of your own destiny, then success and failure is entirely dependent on you and no one else can be blamed. The bottomline is, if you fail, it’s your fault and no one else’s. That’s why the same Benign0 who wrote…

“What we need is the courage and open-mindedness to understand clearly what we need to do to re-tool our culture, mindsets and thought processes, and approach to doing things so that a nation-building machine that is truly able to compete could emerge out of the collective and quiet achievement of the majority.”

…is also the one who told me…

“…But do you really think that people like you and I are truly representative of the Filipino people? Just because there are a handfull of brilliant individuals does not necessarily mean that the society to which said individuals belong to is collectively brilliant…Don’t presume to know the Pinoy masses, simply because you yourself are Pinoy.” -Benigno at February 5th, 2007 6:55 am

…adding that…

“…We are merely the culmination of the hardwork of our ancestors and, hopefully, continuing to build upon the capital of this hardwork by working hard and smart ourselves so that our own offspring will benefit and pass on this capital to the next.” - Benign0 at February 5th, 2007 1:56 pm

To a can do guy like Benign0, success itself becomes proof of virtue, and failure is considered a vice. This is evident in the way that he sings praises to the Chinese-Filipino Taipans, never mind that, for all their personal financial success, they have always lagged behind their counterparts in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in terms of coming up with world class industry leaders, thereby failing to generate the same level of prosperity as our neighbors. By contrast, he thinks that we Filipinos…

“…expect heroic efforts from the few and continued mediocrity from the majority” [and for the] ” low product of the majority to be subsidised by the exceptional output of the minority.”

…and therefore sees the need to preach self-reliance, overlooking that self-reliance has already been demonstrated by the eight million OFW’s who have already taken it upon themselves to look for better jobs abroad and, as a result, are now subsidizing the Philippine economy. More importantly, he is seemingly oblivous to the fact that majority of our entrepreneurs belong to Classes D and E of Philippine Society and are therefore following in the footsteps of the Taipans. (Distribution of Entrepreneurs by Socio-economic status as follows: Class ABC+ 7%, Class C- 19%, Class D 54%, Class E 20%)

Of course, how can a positive-thinker see that we Filipinos have been self-reliant all along when it is an article of the positive thinking faith that failure is your own fault? And if success and failure is a function of your own efforts, then it follows that concepts like Social Justice and Altruism do not have a place, and can even be seen to be disrupting the natural order of things. In a highly unequal society like the Philippines, i see how this kind of positive thinking can be a problem. I hope you do as well.

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About The Author: chuck is a veteran Information Technology professional with almost two decades experience in the Industry. He is currently based in Singapore. He blogs at The Placeholder.

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14 Responses to “The Dark Side of Positive Thinking”

  1. RC0 on July 18th, 2008 5:27 am

    Be a positive thinker but be realistic also. Not everything is in your control.

  2. benign0 on July 18th, 2008 7:49 am

    cvj,

    You’re absolutely right about everything you said:

    (1) “[…]if you are to adopt an attitude of self-reliance and consider yourself the master of your own destiny, then success and failure is entirely dependent on you and no one else can be blamed[…].

    (2) “[…]if you fail, it’s your fault and no one else’s[…]”

    Good work kiddo! :D

    As to what you say here:

    […] for all [the Chinoys’] personal financial success, they have always lagged behind their counterparts in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in terms of coming up with world class industry leaders, thereby failing to generate the same level of prosperity as our neighbors […]

    Well, I say: They didn’t generate the same level of prosperity for the whole of Pinoy society, but they did for themselves. If that is a crime, then sue them. But don’t expect them to wetnurse the rest of the society. Personal prosperity is one’s personal responsibility.

    Which in all ironies brings us to your next brainwave:

    […] self-reliance has already been demonstrated by the eight million OFW’s who have already taken it upon themselves to look for better jobs abroad and, as a result, are now subsidizing the Philippine economy […]

    A fact which time and again, I’ve actuually cited as THE single one aspect of our sad society that highlights our inability to get our shit together.

    I think pictures are better at expressing that concept which you seem to lack an inherent ability to comprehend so check out this brilliant slideshow to get a better picture of what I mean.

    As Mr. ‘RC0′ said:

    Be a positive thinker but be realistic also. Not everything is in your control

    What separates the men from the crybabies is the ability to capitalise on what they do control and achieve despite the aspect of their personal circumstances that they don’t control.

    Nice blog by the way. It yet again highlights your on-going challenge at synthesising disparate snippets of concepts that when taken together in an unstructured way tends to flumox the average schmoe.

  3. Jon Limjap on July 18th, 2008 8:56 am

    Chuck,

    Is there a bright side to negative thinking? I’d like to hear that. :)

  4. cvj on July 18th, 2008 2:50 pm

    rc0, i agree. one of the things my Mom taught me by her example is to keep a positive attitude no matter what life may throw at you. not easy, but it helps.

    jon, i haven’t given that a thought. in my circle, i’m known as the optimist so i don’t think there’s any bright side to negative thinking.

  5. Filipinos and entrepreneurship: What’s the real score? | Filipino Voices on July 18th, 2008 5:33 pm

    […] result of the GEM Philippines 2006-2007 National Report, as cited by CVJ, is baffling, to say the least. In the study, GEM Philippines states that the distribution of […]

  6. Patricio Mangubat on July 19th, 2008 8:23 am

    Nice blog, CVJ. However, I have one question–are Filipinos, the poor, by the way, really think as what Benigno wrote here? I mean, do they really have this mentality that the elites, the Taipans, would “wetnurse” the rest of Filipino society?

    And by the way, “flumox” is spelled wrong. It should be “flummox” (to bewilder).

  7. cvj on July 19th, 2008 10:58 am

    Thanks Patricio. Time and again, Benign0 demonstrates that his idea of efficiency is to think in terms of stereotypes. In this case, the facts show that his impression of the poor is mistaken, as the GEM Study points out:

    Four out of 10 adult Filipinos, aged 18 to 64 are engaged in business, which approximates around 19 million (39.2%) of the whole country population. This ranks the Philippines second among countries with most individuals owning a business.

    About half of them (20.44%) comprise the country’s total early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA) which approximates around 10 million adult Filipinos. This prevalence rate ranks third globally among those with high TEA levels. On the other hand, the remaining 19.72%, or about 9.5 million, comprise the country’s established businesses (EB). This prevalence rate ranks first globally among those with high EB levels.

    With 19 million Filipinos (mostly Classes D and E) engaged in entrepreneurial activity, add to that the 8 million OFW’s, Benign0’s stereotype does not hold.

  8. AdB on July 23rd, 2008 11:11 am

    Excellent piece Chuck.

    As the eternal optimist myself, I’m wont to believe that positive thinking is one of the key drivers for leading a good and/or useful life but just like you say, it has a dark side because a positive thinker clearly must ultimately be a pragmatist ultimately. It is my belief that while pragmatism is a positive virtue, a keen pragmatist is a postive thinker who has a tendency to flex or stretch positive thinking to extremes, an act which negates the very essence of “can do”: such be all approach to life translates to unrealism.

  9. AdB on July 23rd, 2008 11:24 am

    And I agree with your take completely: Filipinos in their own singular way, have always been self reliant.

  10. cvj on July 23rd, 2008 6:37 pm

    Hi Anna, thanks!

  11. Bencard on July 24th, 2008 2:13 am

    contrary to what cvj is implying, the ofw phenomenon is a validation of benigno’s message on “self-reliance”. however, the ofws , for the most part, are motivated by their and their family’s survival or desire to live like their middle class neighbors. i don’t believe they are doing it for the country, or that patriotism has anything to do with it.

    altruisim has its limits - no one can exist on somebody’s charity forever. social justice does not invision draconian measures to equalize wealth, rather it is for the equalization of opportunities. both concepts do not negate self-reliance which, i think, is the only best hope for everyone in a society.

    btw, we have discussed and debated this issue at length on manolo quezon’s blog sometime ago (sorry, i don’t know how to link).

  12. Driving down an unentrepreneurial road | Filipino Voices on October 31st, 2008 11:30 pm

    […] D segment, and 20% belong to the Class E segment. While some people contend that these 54% are “following in the footsteps of the taipans”, it doesn’t present reveal the extent of planning, research, and marketing that these […]

  13. Jon Limjap on October 31st, 2008 11:34 pm

    cvj,

    I was finally able to publish my response to this article, after three months :P

    Hope my response suffices.

  14. Driving down an unentrepreneurial road on November 9th, 2008 11:09 pm

    […] D segment, and 20% belong to the Class E segment. While some people contend that these 54% are “following in the footsteps of the taipans”, it doesn’t present reveal the extent of planning, research, and marketing that these […]

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