Comments on: I think I can’t. I think I can’t. Oh… oops, I was wrong.

By: sashen

sashen — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:44:15 +0000

The world needs more schmevidence.

And pot noodles.

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:24:32 +0000

Evidence? Shmevidence.

Mr Sashen does very good work.
Almost as good as my old teacher.
Fancy a pot noodle?

By: Ron Grubaugh

Ron Grubaugh — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:17:58 +0000

I was thinking more about unbridled optimism than absolutism, but hey, you have a good point. The two together can kill twice as many people as either one by itself.

I just had been thinking that the Titanic is a marvelous peice of evidence for the independence of expectation and outcome. But only if you feel a need, out of politeness, to provide evidence against absolute nonsence.

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:07:58 +0000

tee-hee

By: sashen

sashen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:23:06 +0000

“Watch out for that bus that’s about to hit and kill you!”

“Why do you have to be so negat–”

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:50:40 +0000

I like a jest, Ron Grubaugh,

Its our old friends the absolutes again, Unsinkable Absolutes.

ellen

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:57:05 +0000

An increasingly frequent occurrence at work is that anything expressed that does not enthusiastically endorse every utterance of the person on the next level of hierarchy is ‘Negative Thinking’– almost a sin. My thoughts, less and less often expressed in the face of this are:
Ever heard of feedback? The ability to discriminate? A different viewpoint? Isn’t this the way totalitarianism begins?
Strange days.
T Humphreys wrote a good book, The Power of Negative Thinking.
ellen

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:16:04 +0000

Wasn’t there something about how those of us in the ’school of reality’ didn’t understand that the neocons were ‘making a new reality’? I don’t think it’s just the financial markets that have taken optimism over realism to disasterous consequences….

By: Ron Grubaugh

Ron Grubaugh — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 05:52:30 +0000

I think you already have said it better. Ms. Ehrenreich is including new thought, positive thinking and possibly good old fashioned misguided optimism in one nebulous mass. New thought steps boldly accross a line that Norman Vincent Peale never crossed (to my knowledge). Notwithstanding, it’s always nice to hear another voice taking a jab at this nonsense.

But regarding the implicit hypothesis that our current crisis can in some way be attributed to the proliferation of new thought, that’s very intriguing. I haven’t the foggiest how I would determine if there is any truth to that. What do you think of that specifically? How would you support it?

And further (in jest of course) how does that little incident with the Titanic fit in? Ron