One of the most disturbing qualities of the neoconservative rhetoric is their incessant urging of Americans to "think positive" about the War in Iraq. They tell us America needs to remain on "offense." They tell us we haven't won the war yet because the Democrats are weak and anti-war citizens don't truly believe in the power of democracy. Ask any Republican presidential hopeful (besides Ron Paul) and they'll tell you we aren't losing the war, we're just uh... not winning it yet. But maybe we'll win it tomorrow. Or maybe the day after that. Winning is guaranteed though. But if we don't win it won't be because we didn't try, it will be because those soft-cocked, feeble-minded, hemp-clothed, anti-American, Communist-loving, douche-bag liberals said we couldn't!
Yikes. It seems to me the power of positive thinking is being greatly exaggerated in the Republican party.
Listen, I'm all for positive thinking. Even though we at the Prometheus Institute like to point out a lot of awful, wasteful things our government is doing to screw us on a daily basis- life is still pretty fuckin' awesome here in Orange County. It's always sunny, the women are beautiful, there's ample amounts of high quality weed, dozens of places to play high stakes poker legally, exquisite landscape, thousands upon thousands of ridiculously rare and heavily modified vehicles, and the highest quality road pavement in the world. There's a lot to be positive about, and generally, 99.8% of the time we err on the side of optimism. And it might even be cool where you're at, too.
There's a difference, however, between being positive and being plain ignorant. According to William F. Buckley, ability to discern reality is the fundamental prerequisite to being a conservative. The same applies for positive thinking. Just as an AIDS patient can't wish away his disease on a whim, you can't turn shit into shekels.
If I peer down at a 5, 7, 10, triple off-suited hand in a $20-$40 Crazy Pineapple game, I can't just put the cards back to the felt and lift them up again and expect AA2 suited to be staring me in the face. Even if I reallllllly wanted it to be AA2. I just don't think those cards are going to change.
It's time to realize the War is a losing hand. The good Pineapple player knows how to get out of a big hand, let alone a 5, 7, 10 off-suit. Besides, there will be plenty to be positive about once the war is over and terrorists are too busy looting their own country to care about attacking us abroad.
The above work is the opinion of the author, and not necessarily that of the Prometheus Institute
Everything's going to be A-OK. Trust me.