Can we stop it, please, with the Prozac Nation attitude?
A positive message from Josef Stalin, the man who killed tens of millions, destroyed his country and authored the progressive soundbite: ‘to create, you must first destroy’
All those finding themselves about to fall victim to the false-positive disease should bring themselves up short and remember that there is nothing European about it, and that even in the United States of America, the very place where this disease was born and bred, it has come under ferocious attack for a great variety of reasons.
Europeans are realists. Europeans are neither positive nor negative, just damn well realistic and factual, down to earth. If they are smiling and positive about everything all the time, it’s because they’re on Prozac. European culture does not prize meaningless and inane positivity for its own sake. It prizes the facts and a realistic assessment of a situation.
Joseph Muscat’s Labour Party has spent the last five years being extremely negative, negative to the point of ultra-destructive, aided and abetted by its vast media machine led by Super One TV and closely followed by Super One radio.
Anything and everyone connected to the Nationalist Party/the government was systematically torn to shreds over a prolonged half-decade. I restrict myself deliberately to Muscat’s tenure as leader but it had been going on for years before that.
Then, in the last couple of weeks of an election campaign in which the Labour Party placed happy shiny images, adverts and campaigning over a solid bed of negativity and attacks on cabinet ministers (how are those in any way positive?) and other individuals, it began talking about how positive Labour and its campaign were. It fed the word ‘positive’ into the system, its people began to repeat it on Facebook, and now here we are: even perfectly normal and stable people are suddenly feeling the need to talk as though they’re on legal drugs.
Perhaps we’re about to discover what the United States has done already: that where positivity becames mandatory, and where realism is talked of as ‘being negative’, real misery reigns and lots more people do end up taking those legal drugs to keep themselves positive, or sitting in a chair in a head-doctor’s clinic.
This is because relentless positivity is not humanity’s normal condition, and when you feel forced into it by the society in which you live, you begin to think you’re going crazy or you actually do go crazy. Human feelings are varied. They have to be varied, natural responses to real situations because that is what normality is and anything else will drive us nuts.
The dangerous thing now is that perfectly normal people with normal responses are feeling cyber-bullied by the Facebook mobs and the rest of the internet army on various comments-boards into not saying anything even remotely factual (let alone critical) about the actions of the Labour government in case they are thought to be ‘not positive’.
Those of us who grew up in the 1970s might remember (I certainly do) the spate of cults that bossed and beat their adherents into being positive all the time. Many of them went mad, which was a short step away given that you had to be slightly unhinged or very vulnerable to join up in the first place.
That’s what this situation now reminds me of: if you are not positive all the time, the nasty Facebook mob, including many of your Facebook friends, will rush right out with their big cyber-stick and speak to you aggressively, threateningly and scathingly until you give in and start echoing their positive words.
They are, of course, oblivious to the inherent contradiction: bullying your Facebook friends into submission for daring to say something ‘negative’ (for which read ‘factual’) about the new government is hardly positive behaviour. It is, in fact, extremely intolerant and aggressive.
Watching the developments on Facebook and elsewhere is a reminder of how tragically susceptible to bullying and crowd-attack many people are. Most people only have the courage of their convictions until the first attack comes in. By the time the second and the third attack is up on their Facebook wall, they have crumbled and given in – if not in reality then at least in public.
Yet it is these very people who are doing harm to the cause they purport to espouse – the revival of the Nationalist Party – and not those who criticize the many poor judgement calls this new government has made already in just two weeks.
Criticism of those poor judgement calls is well placed and – this being a democracy and Joseph Muscat not being the heir to Josef Stalin – it is also necessary. Surely nobody honestly means to suggest that we all stand by and say nothing about the sacking of the permanent secretaries and the really questionable appointments made so far. Surely they do not mean to say, with all their talk of positivity, that we were supposed to be super-positive and say instead, “Well done, prime minister, you have done a great job in these two weeks. That Mario Vella for Malta Enterprise – jolly good show!”
This is a typical Facebook comment by a new member of the Positively Guilty:
If some elements in the PN are going to persist with a negative attitude, I am sorry to say that things are going to take a long time until the party will successfully rebuild itself and entice back lost sheep.
Looking for every opportunity to attack the PL is only going to serve to keep the party in opposition for a very very long time !
We need a new mentality, a new approach, a new outlook to things. Shed the gloom and doom and think positively and look at the upside of things !!! Do not let the decisions of the new government dictate our spirit and outlook but let’s be ourselves the bearers of our our own destiny through the change we bring around us with our thoughts and actions.
I disagree with certain criticism that is being levied at the government and I cannot see that it is being constructive nor will it win over people. The PN needs to build itself into an even better party than the new movement and it can only achieve that with a positive mentality and approach. Sorry but I had to get this off my chest !
There is something deeply, deeply unEuropean about this sentiment. I rather suspect that we are going to bypass entirely becoming European and go straight to espousing Californian values, but without the hair and teeth.
Meanwhile, I shall insist on remaining fiercely European in thinking and outlook, and stay firmly realistic. There are many cultural and historical reasons why the American attitude is totally alien to Europe, and it is not for us to reinvent the European wheel.
In any case, positivity sits ill with Maltese people and you can tell that beneath all the talk and the false smiles, teeth are gritted. So forget positivity, forget negativity, and just be realistic.
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This is so serious it requires profanity.
Fuck positivity. Fuck reconciliation.
No surrender.
Got shit on today for being negative at a luncheon. Was told ‘you’re only negative because they put you in prison the last time they were in power’.
My response was, ‘No, I see what has transpired in only two weeks, and can, being realistic, predict what we will experience over the next horrendous two hundred plus weeks.’
Guffaws all around. Sigh.
Yeah right. Because, you know, spending one month in prison on a made-up charge is such a small thing, buds. A mere peccadillo. A slip-up, what. Like putting on mismatched socks or forgetting to get the milk on your way home.
Were your lunch partners Maltese? Something tells me they were.
Let me hammer it home once again: NO SURRENDER. NO RETREAT.
Actually, they were North Africans and told me to stay away from the Maltese.
Agree. And shame on those cowed into silent subservience. Are we not better than sheep, bullied by Facebook trolls and comment board elves?
They first use silvery words to lull our suspicions, and to gradually undermine our resistance. But if the flowery prose doesn’t work, they play on the very human need of belongingness to overwhelm any resistance.
Hear hear! And here is something everyone might like to watch.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/i-am-fishead-are-corporate-leaders-psychopaths/
Joseph Muscat: The complete Fishhead!
Comments such as the one quoted in this blog entry are often written by Labour Elves keeping alive the tradition of parading themselves as Nationalists.
I have yet to meet – both in real life and on Facebook – a real Nationalist (i.e someone who actually voted PN) who thinks we should not criticise the new government.
[Daphne – This is one such. I left out his name because he is not a public person. And also, because I have an idea that he doesn’t fully grasp the magnitude of what those words mean. Sometimes people just say things.]
I happened to have seen that comment on my wall too. Alas, I can vouch he’s a Nationalist supporter.
Many seem to have fallen for the copy and paste attitude. Let’s do everything the “moviment” did. Soon, we’ll be talking about merging. Muscat’s wet dream of eliminating all opposition.
I bet some people are bursting with the urge to write something about the Great Leader’s leadership so far, on Facebook or elsewhere, and they don’t.
Why? No, really why don’t they?
I just don’t understand their excuse. http://favim.com/image/614052/
And then there are those who just don’t and their answers are always the same: “I’m not interested in politics. Politics don’t affect me. Madoff you’re still going on about it, just accept it, you lost. Mhux xorta they’re both bad. I’m too busy. What difference does it make whether I write something or not. Issa the election is over. Why make enemies for nothing. As if xi dwejjaq how boring. Do you think I put on weight? What fun summer’s coming.”
These are people in their 40s and 50s who seem to be going on to sweet 16.
They’re the switcher demographic.. Scrambled eggs for brains and a very high opinion of their own importance to the universe.
As we had predicted before, after 10 March, the Joseph Muscat movement is quickly uncovering its national socialist/fascist nature.
This blog has already dealt with the concept of the “movement”, which is the building up of a majority with a view to crush all opposition.
In the current post-victory and acquisition-of-power phase, the movement is building up the hype so that anyone criticising the movement or its actions will be regarded as “an enemy of the people” who has to be ridiculed, punished and ‘eliminated’.
Now that decisions are starting to be taken, and ‘the people’ will soon start seeing the results of those actions, the movement will be justifying its actions and achievements by references to God, or, more likely, it will declare its own god – usually in the person of the Great Leader – who will be worshipped, and whose name shall not be used in vain. He Shall be imposed on the population, and His Spirit will be present everywhere.
Judging by the way the Labourite mob chanted in Rabat a few days ago, I’m pretty sure that the Great Leader is their god.
Labour (especially since Mintoff) has always attratced those who were anti-clerical for the sake of being so, so they easily substitute one for the other.
And what about Muscat’s meeting with Archbishop Cremona and his talk on revising the Church-State Agreement or his talk of his government’s superiority even in marriage under the auspices of the Church? Clearly he wants to set himself up as omnipotent in every aspect of life.
Joey ta’ Burmarrad’s PL pre-electoral message is still being conveyed on the fake (what else) smartphone billboards which remain illegally in place in prominent positions in Valletta, Tas-Sliema, and elsewhere.
We are now but one step away from having Joseph Muscat’s image displayed, Saddam and Gaddafi like, on these boards as a reminder to dissenting persons as to who is now calling the shots.
what’s wrong with being positive? i think that in the circumstances, one should first see how things unfold…the result of the general elections especially should merit at least the chance to see this approach and give it a chance…and give time to time! i voted pn by the way….and although i have big reserves and am rather sceptical regarding this new government, i think reconstruction within the pn party is absolutely vital at this stage and only possible with a positive outlook. Truth be told, i agree with this blogger….
Reconstruction within the PN starts with the reconstruction of a goddamn spine.
Opposition means just that. Unity be buggered. I’m not about to join the league of morons and scoundrels.
No pasarán, as Mario Vella would put it.
Criticise the incumbents with all the vigour possible. But also look within your walls and be true to have a go at them too when needed.
I’ve just done precisely that. It’s line 1 of my comment.
But then I’m Mr Nobody, so they won’t listen.
Louise, there is absolutely nothing wrong with being positive but not when it stops people from being realistic.
Would you be more comfortable if I had to wait for (say) a period of three to six months to say that I think it was wrong that ‘Bernard Vassallo has been dismissed as chairman of the Kunsill Malti tal-Isport without his knowledge – and he has been replaced by Mark Cutajar, a Super One journalist.’
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-03-24/news/bernard-vassallo-removed-from-kms-chairman-1242693632/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook
Kif jghidu l-ftira shuna tajba.
Joseph Muscat appointed Mario Cutajar, Keith Allen Schembri and Kurt Farrugia on day one.
On day one, Muscat said the Permanent Secretary “expressed a wish to move on”, a euphemism for “jump or you’ll be pushed”, and Muscat installed Mario Cutajar in his place.
On day two, all permanent secretaries were asked to resign. Theirs is a constitutional appointment. They were appointed by the President, not by the government of the day. Yet the government of this day demanded their resignation.
On day three, the BA board, a constitutionally appointed board, was asked to resign. So was the board of the Central Bank, answerable to the ECB and not to the government of Malta. So was an appeals board, which is autonomous and has privileged status under the law.
How long do you need to work out what’s wrong with all tha?
Mark Cutajar is also a (maths) teacher at an independent school, and was absent from class for a couple of days post-election.
Knowing what I do now (this blog is so informative!) about his appointment at KMS, it would be interesting to know the reasons for his absence, though I would prefer to assume that he was physically indisposed, rather than that he took leave (or otherwise) for political reasons.
How can you be positive about the tens of decisions contradicting their meritocracy mantras pre-election?
The role of the opposition is to criticise, and not to allow the government to do whatever it pleases and forget all the promises which brought it to power.
The new government is very selective with the idea of positivity.
It only applies as a tool of defence mechanism to bully away any criticism. In the meantime the same positive people open up Facebook pages like this:
https://www.facebook.com/antigonzi
I always imagine Joseph Muscat as someone who stabs you repeatedly with a full smile printed on his face, while informing you that he is being positive.
OMG how disgusting! And these are the people who are saying that they are being positive and we should all be positive? The posts on this Facebook page are a big “hammallata” and disgusting, to say the least, that could only appeal to pea brains.
And please note that most of them were posted AFTER the election results! Unity my left foot. Did it ever occur to such pea brains that if you really want unity and people to be “positive”, notwithstanding the majority, one has to respect the other 132,000+ voters?
What irks me most are those PN supporters like the one in this blog and many others, who seem to have been “impressed” by their futile words.
By the way, your “imagination” of Joseph Muscat is precisely like mine.
You can report such offensive sites to the Facebook administration. I just did. If we all report similar offensive sites, there will be less of them around. Spread the word, and the reports. ;)
This one has got the +ve bug!
Kevin J Drake
Yesterday, 15:09
Fundamentally GOOD iDEAs are harder to ‘swallow’ when they’re not yours, i+’s a little Harder to get used to ‘The’ idea, naturally. Pointing it out, though, in WHICHEVER Light, simply highlights a grudging, and ill-disguised, RESPECT, in effect, but Respect i+ IS nonetheless, nu? ;) Even More simple is the Maltese eXpression: Min imaqdar, Irid Jixtri!… Aptly put, wouldn’t you agree? ;) >K
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130324/local/franco-debono.462651
Kevin J Drake
Mar 23rd, 21:05
What an uncannily appropriate moVe! Good 1. Perhaps we should also All start getting a bit more used to the iDEA that Spring Cleaning does not necessarily always warrant Clean Sweeps! It’s all OK as long as the Sweepers are Clean at all times, whilst Cleaning, nu? ;) As far as I’m concerned, avoiding the UnNecessary is as much of a Virtue as Doing what is Necessary & Righ+, Naturally. Simple
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130323/local/franco-debono-appointed.462628
He’s waiting for his pound of flesh, I suppose.
2B +ve :)
http://img3.etsystatic.com/000/0/6202694/il_fullxfull.243379719.jpg
[Daphne – Thanks, Mark, but we had better explain to the elves that this was Josef Stalin, author of the totalitarian legend ‘you must destroy so as to create’.]
Surely the elves don’t read your blog?
In any case smiles and talk of bright futures and rising suns and such are standard fixtures of totalitarian regimes.
The Facebook comment quoted is nothing but a load of hippie crap. And enough with “the movement” nonsense. Movements don’t get to govern. Politicians do.
Only crazy people look positively on negative things.
Brilliant article! And so glad to see that I’m not alone in not being ‘positive’.
But I seem to be surrounded by these people so am just not bothering to talk to them or to just stick to trivia.
Many people are confusing “being optimistic” with “being positive”.
I have been saying this for quite a long time, since the publication of Norman Vincent Peale’s (American) “The power of positive thinking”.
Brava.
This blog is becoming more and more entertaining.
With a circus for a cabinet, and a clown for a prime minister, what would you expect?
The second republic. As if the one shoved down our throats by that nasty piece of work in 1974 was not enough!
Rejecting integration in the fifties was a big tactical mistake by the PN. It would have spared us Mintoff and KMB, Sant and Muscat. We could have had the catholic church as the established church for Malta, in the same way as the Church of Scotland is the established church in Scotland.
We would have been in the EU anyway, and British nationals, just like the isles. We would have had the constant presence of British statesmen and servicemen, reminding the local bunch of peasants that Malta is the size of a bird dropping in the overall scheme of things.
And they would have had to learn English and hopefully we would have less ignorance and insularity.
Sigh. We would have had a fully functioning government of competents, with The Queen as head of state instead of George Plaques Abela.
The benefit of hindsight. It is a wonderful thing. But completely useless.
Never too late.
Integration was a ridiculous Mintoffian idea. Impossible, perverted, and as always with him, a ploy.
We should have gone for dependency status. That’s our natural place in history. A British dependency.
Then I wouldn’t have had these peasants lording it over me.
Looking forward to see what ass backward plans the ‘moviment’ has planned for this week.
Hi Daphne,
Have you seen this trouncing of Boris Johnson (whom the PL used so much for his remarks on bendy buses) by Eddie Mair on BBC. The latter accuses Johnson: ‘you’re a nasty piece of work’.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/video/2013/mar/24/boris-johnson-accused-nasty-video
I recently came across an article titled ” What Is Your Question?” in the March edition of Scientific American.
The article makes interesting reading.
It starts off with the following, ” A democracy relies on an electorate of critical thinkers. Yet formal education, which is driven by test taking, is increasingly failing to require students to ask the kind of questions that lead to informed decisions.”
The above statement really reflects what I believe is the root cause for the electorate in Malta voting in the Labour Party. To make matters worse the current wave of “positivity” engulfing Malta, that sidelines anyone who questions or criticises the governments decisions, will potentially worsen the lack of critical thinking.
The key word is perspective.
We have no terrorist threats, low crime, lovely weather, very low-levels anti-social behaviour, etc etc and if the majority want to risk five years of the sort of ‘change’ a Muscat government will bring then so be it.
If they don’t like the ‘change’ then how lucky they are to have a Simon Busuttil-led PN to sort out the mess.
This time round, I do not think we are going to be lucky, unfortunately. All in all, however, I hope and pray I am wrong.
I thought i was in hippieland with everybody being positive and friendly and sharing everything.
All we need is free pot joints ala Amsterdam and then we would all be in da moviment.
3 weeks down, 200 to go, tra la la…..
California dreaming. Will we also get Michelle in a ‘two piece’ doing 50 miles an hour on roller skates too?
“two pieces” (according to Natius).
Maltese gemgem… never before have I appreciated its value so much!! At least it kept us realistic!