We've Got to Accentuate the Positive

JACK
Many articles have been written on the power of positive thinking. 50 years ago, one of the best selling books of all time was by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, "The Power of Positive Thinking". I have lived with this philosophy for as many years as I can remember. This concept is particularly important today, since I cannot recall a time that Americans were more pessimistic. Even after Pearl Harbor we rose to the occasion. Americans overcame seemingly insurmountable problems. There seemed to be no doubt that despite the huge defeats on the battlefield that we would win that war.

Today, I feel this enormous sense of defeat and the feeling that there are too many obstacles for us to overcome. So many of us have been all but destroyed by the economy and the rampant dishonesty that surrounds many of the crises that we are experiencing. I feel for the victims of the Ponzi schemes and the collapse of our banks, the auto industry, the tourist industry, and all business and all people that have been hurt. More than at any time in our history, we must go positive. We must realize that every down-stroke has an upstroke and the clichés about the darkness before the dawn are very true.

So many of us have trouble in not finding the instant cure, the magic bullet that will solve everything. If we are able to grasp the concept that it took us a long time to get us where we are, we must allow the time for recovery. How can the opposition party possibly denounce the stimulus bill when it hasn't even been put to work yet? It's time to give the proposal a chance to succeed. It is also time to stop measuring success in absolutes. To me, success is on the way when people START seeing relief, and attitudes turn to a feeling that good things can happen.

HILLARY
Do you think that the change in how we get our information since WWII is affecting our attitudes?

JACK
Absolutely. It's all about perception. Today's media blitz puts everything under a microscope, and often goes beyond the comprehension of the viewer. Economics, for example is not a simple a subject. There is a cliché that is very true – if you pose a problem to 10 economists you'll get 11 answers. The stock market is a giant auction that is subject to emotional responses. If one well-known company in an industry does poorly, the entire industry takes a hit. Our system of democracy allows us to elect the best and the brightest and in turn, from the President down, people should be chosen who are intellectual sound and experts in their arena. If our congress examines a bill that contains 1000 pages, they should be qualified to understand the problem and either agree or disagree with the solutions. But I certainly don't feel qualified to predict how the stimulus bill will eventually come out. We have elected our people, they have appointed their experts, solutions are being offered, and I feel very strongly that these solutions should be given a chance to work. All the time we must reserve the knowledge that none of it is perfect, or totally predictable. The litmus test in a democracy is, does it have a positive effect on most of the people without damaging the rest.

So we may give all the arguments pro and con, but the most important feature that we can bring to the table is a positive attitude. I have felt that this kind of attitude contributes greatly to success on the job, in the business, and in our personal relationships.

HILLARY
And our health.

JACK
Most people agree a positive attitude certainly contributes to a healthy body, and the same thing applies to the government. It's interesting how symbols help us to elevate our mental health. Once more, I have to go back about 50 years when a couple of very good friends of mine formed an advertising agency and created the Happy Face. I don't know if they ever made any money on it, but it sure lifted a lot of spirits. Perhaps someone can come up with either an expression, or an appropriate symbol to help us in generating a special spark of positive thinking.

HILLARY
I think it's much harder to get a single motivating message out these days. In the days the happy face, or "we shall overcome", there were limited media outlets so everyone was basically watching the same thing. Now people have hundreds, thousands, of places to get information, which means that there are a lot of different perspectives out there but I think it's much harder to get a single image or saying to have the kind of power you're looking for.

JACK
I agree that it's more difficult – but it certainly is not impossible. Just as in show business, a performance has to "get legs". The limited people that see, or hear, have much greater means of spreading the word. The whole idea of positive thinking, positive action, and positive projections has to catch on because it is right for the time.

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