We bite our tongues rather than starting arguments that aren’t worth having. We assume a home-improvement project will take longer and cost more than our more optimistic estimates. We pay our insurance premiums, live in affordable homes and happily buy off-label clothes. Negativity is said to be about fear, and the positive thinking camp seems to consider fear a universal evil. But here on the Negative Side, there’s such a thing as healthy fear. It’s what keeps us from taking out sub-prime mortgages and accumulating credit-card debt. It’s why we wear seatbelts and keep an emergency kit in the basement during tornado season. It’s what prompts us to get the brakes fixed and the septic tank pumped. It’s why we install smoke detectors, teach our kids how to get out of the house during a fire, get annual physicals. It’s not that we never visualize a desired outcome. We just don’t count on it.
- Kris, a reader of Slate.com, on Oprah’s mushy philosophy of optimism