The relationship between optimism, pessimism and the economic downturn is a fascinating one. I’ve blogged before about how some American thinkers have tried to blame the recession on a surplus of optimism, untempered by the sense of realism that pessimism brings. Read more…
An Australian psychologist has claimed that feeling grumpy ‘is good for you’. At least that’s the spin the popular media put on the findings of Professor Joe Forgas of the University of South Wales. What the guy actually says is a little more nuanced. His claim is that there are some advantages to negative moods, just as there are to positive moods. Read more…
Breaking news – Gordon Brown has become a personal development guru! I’ll have to watch out for my customers…
In Cutting the Crap of Recession-Speak (Part 1) I contrasted the advice of entrepreneur Sir David Tang with our Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Tang urges small-but-optimistic thinking, whereas Brown preaches a kamikaze imprudent doctrine of spend, spent, spend.
Now it seems that Gordo has got on message. For this new attempt to harness positive psychology in the name of politics, see Brown warns against ‘pessimism’. But even here, he can’t resist the use of that histrionic, grandiose language that may well be one of the causes of the recession in the first place! For instance, he claims that the economic crisis should be treated as “the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order”. I find this kind of overtly Orwellian language disturbing. Read more…
