There is an important question in how one sees the world. Should one be positive
about things or negative?
A worrisome image
pops into my head. The space shuttle challenger disaster. On inquiry, it
was found that overly optimistic managers pushed the mission through despite
warnings from workers that there was a problem...
As a result, lives were lost, the mission failed.
This was clearly a case where
optimism was negative. The poles
reversed: being positive became negative.
So the most heroic gesture
would have been a worker that
stood up and very loudly and rudely shouted "STOP". He
would
be universally condemned by co-workers and management, and seen by all as
negative, but when you stand back from it, that's the most positive thing
that could have happened...
Are there other times when
this is true?
The image that pops
into my head is in the Lord of the Rings story... There's that character,
(fill in name here), and he's dying and he says "you're all doomed, your mission
will fail!"
As he dies...
I don't know if you know the
story, but clearly, on their quest,
To not hold hope is to die a lowly coward. The instinct towards life
Is violated by his words... (but he stole the ring to try and save his
People, so its not as bad as all that...)
So there are times when
it is "optimism or lack honour."
Optimism or death...
Optimism as
a rule of the life force...
And there are times like the space shuttle where saying the glass is half full, optimistically pushing forward, is the most negative thing you can do...
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