Out-of-Control Positive Thinking: Have We Lost the Right to Be Pessimistic?

Is positive thinking bad? No one says that. The problem is, it's out of control!

　　In Milan Kundera's novel The Joke, a character sends a postcard with the line: "Optimism is the opium of the people." The character is then accused of being an enemy of the state and sentenced to forced labor in a coal mine. Kundera himself was punished for writing The Joke; he was expelled from the Communist Party, and his works were banned from libraries and bookstores. Furthermore, the government prohibited him from traveling to the West.

　　American proponents of positive thinking would undoubtedly be horrified to find themselves compared to Stalinist censors and propagandists in a book. After all, they don't intend to drag those who don't heed the teachings of positive thinking to labor camps.

　　Most people don't typically see communism as a cheerful system, yet it serves as an example of using positive thinking to control society. Capitalist democracies, on the other hand, delegate this task to the market. Various self-help books, speeches, and corporate cultures champion positive thinking as a new religion, with zealous adherents self-censoring and forcing themselves to eliminate negative thoughts.