.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Thursday, October 26, 2006

 

A: "That's What Positive People Do."

Q: Why does George W. Bush have a pathological aversion to contingency planning?

People fret that Bush's decisions are governed by End Times delusions, when the truth is that his guiding principles all come from self-help and management books. He's trying to run the country according to Norman Vincent Peale. You can hold the Congress if you think you can. Eliminate all the negative thoughts that prevent you from achieving happiness and success in Iraq. Visualize a way to destroy Social Security and then attain it.

Does the following sound like any big-eared, beady-eyed homegrown would-be dictator you know?
When you have a problem, one that is especially difficult and baffling, perhaps terribly discouraging, there is one basic principle to apply and keep on applying. it is simply this--never quit. To give up is to invite complete defeat.
--Peale, You Can If You Think You Can, page 1
Of course, Peale goes on to suggest approaching a problem in a different way if your current methodology isn't working, but hey, that's paragraph 2, and this is George W. Bush we're talking about.

By the way, during his press conference yesterday, Bush said some variation of "what the American people need to understand" 37,002 times. I counted. Because it would never occur to a positive person that others reject his position because it, you know, sucks. Maybe if he explains it to us one more time, slowly, we'll break "the worry habit", find faith in ourselves and good things will start happening for us.

Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?