I love that! I will use that term. I've been calling it the "Well-at-least" mentality. Teaching ESL in Korea it goes something like this: They take your benefits-Well at least I have my pay. They cut your pay-well at least I am not overworked. They double your workload-well at least class sizes are small. They triple class size-well at least they don't micromanage. They micromanage-well at least I still have a job. The school burns down or Covid 19 hits-well at least I can teach from home. You have to learn dozens of new technical skills and programs for no extra pay-well at least my hours will go down. Your hours go UP-well at least I have partial autonomy. They need you to account for every minute of class time or they don't get government funding-well at least I still have partial autonomy. They don't like your minute-to-minute account and change it completely-well at least I still have a job. They tell you online teaching isn't effective-well at least I can still teach with a mask on. You catch Covid anyway-well at least I can teach from my hospital bed. You die-well at least I had decent medical coverage. You didn't have decent medical coverage-well at least I'm dead and don't have to worry about it any more. They bring you back from the dead because they finally realize how desperately needed good teachers are-well at least NOW they'll surely give me a raise! They don't give you a raise because as a zombie teacher you don't have good union representation, although neither do the human teachers, let's face it-well at least I had a good dirt nap and I still get my base salary. You have to take a 25% pay cut... same reason: no zombie union-well at least the cost of brains is reasonable. The cost of brains rises as more teachers are resurrected and your pay is not indexed accordingly-well at least I can still pull in a paycheck here in Korea. The Korean government enacts a long list of zombiphobic and costly conditions, certificates and government dox needed to keep working-well at LEAST I'm not teaching ESL IN CANADA!
Some people are incorrigibly positive. But sometimes their positivity can be toxic like a positive diagnosis of Covid. So if you have any "friends" who test positive for positivity that is positively toxic, you might want to let them know. They aren't helping anyone by accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative MENTALLY. That doesn't make the negative go away. I can't tell you how many Facebook posts I've seen about how we should all just eliminate negative people and negativity from our lives. Pretend it's not there. Act as if. This is exactly the attitude the bad people of the world who create all the bad problems WANT us to adopt. Imagine Superman going to his fortress of solitude every time somebody mentioned Lex Luthor. If we're all forcing ourselves to be positive in the face of overwhelming negativity, the bad guys win.
I'd go a step further and submit that negativity is something that is not much danger to the wicked, but a good man is easily undone by just the hint of negativity. I couldn't help but notice the fly on Mike Pence's head during the vice presidential debate. It reminded me of a verse from the book he and his master, in the WH, DJ Trump are fond of holding up as their guide. Of course I'm talking about the Bible, and the Wuhan House, and Dumb Jagov Trump.
Now, I'm not going to tell you that I'm a Bible scholar and that the verse Ecclesiastes 10:1 jumped immediately to mind. But have you ever heard the saying, "A fly in the ointment?" This verse is where that saying comes from. I think.
An ointment or perfume or, as I found out first hand while trying to make beer with my friend Mike, a batch of home brew can be completely ruined by a tiny fly. And so can the reputation of a man that is known for wisdom and honour. These words were spoken by Solomon, a man known for wisdom and honour. He oughta know. I found some online commentary that went as follows...
"Solomon seems in these words to be prosecuting what he had said in the last clause of the preceding chapter; showing how much good one foolish action may destroy, what evil may result from it, and how a man, otherwise famed for wisdom, may thereby lose his reputation. So most interpreters understand the verse. “The wiser or better,” says Bishop Patrick, “any man is, so much the more cautious ought he to be in all his words and actions, if he mean to preserve that credit, esteem, and authority in the world, which give him great advantages for doing good. For, as dead flies, though very small creatures, falling into a pot of ointment,” and abiding and being putrified in it, “corrupt that precious composition, and turn the perfume into a stink; so doth a small error or miscarriage blemish him who was highly valued for his discretion and virtue.” And this comes to pass, partly, because all the actions, and consequently the follies of such men are most diligently observed, whereas the actions and follies of persons known to be ignorant and weak are generally disregarded; and, partly, because of that envious and malicious disposition which is in the minds of too many, and makes them quick- sighted to discover, and glad to hear, and forward to declare, the faults of such as, by their greater eminence, outshone and obscured them."
I don't need to tell anyone that people enjoy finding fault in good people. It's practically a sport for some. It has carried many a talk show from radio to TV and now to the internet. The second phenomenon is what I'd like to concentrate on and it was why this particular verse and saying came to mind for me. "The actions and follies of persons known to be ignorant and weak are generally disregarded." Again, I'll go further and say that the disregard is directly proportionate to the ignorance and weakness.
Which brings us back to his infectious eminence Donald Trump. "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters." I believe he could. His colossal ignorance and weakness has led to the spread of Covid 19 throughout the country and throughout the Whitehouse and here's the triumphant video Trumpsplaining THAT:
Believe it or not, that video above had 900 likes and 300 DISlikes when I accessed it! This is what I'm talking about, folks. The description of the "ever-upbeat" medical team, a team that seemed to have been infected with Trump's disease themselves - not the Covid, the compulsive lying, as they hyperpositively described his condition to the media; all the vigilant Trumpsters posting thumbs downs for anything on Youtube that includes negativity about their hero, true or untrue; the rally-goers and Whitehouse staff who obediently go maskless at his behest; the people who have caught Covid, possibly from HIM, distorting facts about their acquisition of Covid 19 and their condition in hopes of protecting the presidud; and most tiresome of all, the proselytizers trying to get clear-thinking people to drink the Kool-Aid they can't undrink themselves.
This phenomenon has puzzled me among others for almost 4 years now, but I think I'm getting to the bottom of it. As mentioned before in this blog, I believe overinvestment coupled with severely unchecked and tragic pride won't allow people to admit they're wrong about Trump once they've gotten too far into the pitfalls of supporting him. I have actually said that perhaps the only exit strategy for these poor souls infected with Trump-induced hubris would be if he caught Coronavirus and died. And not long after I said that, wouldn't you know it, Trump caught the Covid!
Now I knew there would be one of two outcomes: He'd die and open up said exit strategy for the many people entranced by his hypnotic powers, or he'd survive and convince the Trumplings to disregard the blatant stupidity which brought it on, but acknowledge the awesome power of one who could overcome the terrible virus, what, with helicopter-to-hospital service and top of the line healthcare that they are paying for, thus becoming a douchebag of epic proportion. And you know, I am starting to think it actually worked!
By far the most fascinating part of this whole anthropological spectacle is the mind-bending concept that the Trumpists exhibit when confronted with all of this. They believe, they actually believe or have bargained themselves into believing, many of them KNOWING who this shitheel of a man is, that he is the good man in the Bible verse, the ointment who can be ruined by the fly! THIS, my friends is toxic positivity on another level, and it's all around us.
Think of the monumental task that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have on their hands. They have to overcome this! That is, they have to get people who are trapped by their own self-love, to vote for them. In other words, they have to convince these Trump tweakers to love them more than themselves! In a way it's good that America is still too scared of the word Socialism to allow Bernie Sanders to be president because if it WERE him up against Trump, Bernie, an actual GOOD person, all it would take is a little fly to ruin his campaign and Trump would win again. As it is, I don't see the ointment purity in the Democratic opposition, so it'll take a lotta flies to send forth a stinking savour.
They may have caught a break in the debate between Trump and Biden, however. And they may have caught ANOTHER break in Trump getting hopped up on Amaze-adrill or whatever that drug is and blathering on about how great a leader he is and how the Covid was a gift from God. Regeneron. The only drug known to be promoted by a president. Oh, wait, other than hydroxychloroquine. But whether he is a drug pusher, an addict, or a snake-oil salesman, it only ADDS to his ignorance and weakness, and in turn, the general disregard for his ignorance and weakness. All Trump would have to do, as a sort of foil to the whole frequency pass, is just once say he was wrong, or weak or stupid. Then he would get an INfrequency pass! We saw signs of that when talk show slaggers and political opponents started cranking out words of support, prayers and wishes for a speedy return to good health when Trump recalcitrantly stumbled his way into a poetic case of Coronavirus. Maybe he's saving humility for a last, last, last resort? Nah, not our Trump!
If Boris Johnson were to drop an F-bomb, would it be a big deal? Really? Did any of you hear about this when it happened? But if the QUEEN were to suddenly say, "Boris Johnson is a spectacularly ignorant FUCK!"... can you imagine? There'd be books written about it! The tabloids would have a heyday! There would be collector plates sold on the Home Shopping Network and spoons immediately forged at the Royal Mint to commemorate the occasion!
Are you understanding this? The more indecent a person is, the less we think of their indecency. It's almost like a frequency pass. I will share a particularly salient anecdote from my youth. In grade six, I went to John Knox Memorial Christian School. It was the one year I lived with my grandparents, so it was the only year of private school I ever attended. It was no better than public school, but I imagine it was more expensive. At any rate, my teacher was Mr. Koehne, pronounced Koona. You KNOW this is a true story because I could NEVER make up such a name! A name that so fantastically befit his personality and teaching style. Mr. Koehne was a disciplinarian. Mr. Koehne had coffee breath and a silver chalk holder. Mr. Koehne always wore a shirt with sweaty armpits and a tie. Mr. Koehne loved the Lord.
The school was reputed for being strict. I remember the entrance interview I went to with my Grandmother during which the principal, I forget his name, warned, "We run a tight ship here." Probably his way of making my Grandmother think there was a chance in hell (or heaven) they'd turn down her money and not allow me to go there. That was the first time I'd ever heard that phrase. They asked if I knew what it meant and I said I did, but didn't learn until I started attending the school.
Mr. Koehne would write your name on the board if you did anything wrong. ANYthing. Every name or number was a detention at lunch. Lunchtime was hockey time otherwise I doubt the gravitas of the ritual would have been so great. Especially in winter when we had an actual outdoor hockey rink in the school parking lot! If you did something else wrong, he'd put a number beside your name. I loved hockey so much that I don't think more than one or two times I ever had a number beside my name and even then it was never more than a two or three. But there was a guy in my class, again with the names, Jim Duck, who was a notorious bad boy. He was always at the top of the list of names on the board. Usually his offence was doing something funny, which was against the rules and presumably the will of God. I can clearly recall his number being over 50 at one point. Yet, every time he was told by Mr. Koehne that the number after his name was going to be increased by one, Jim would utter a loud, "WHAT?!" Always. One day he was doing something wrong and Mr. Koehne said, "Jim, I'm putting your name on the board." Inevitably there came a loud, "WHAT?!" Mr. Koehne increased the number by one. "WHAT?!" Another increase of one. "WHAT?!" even louder. An increase of one even larger and darker on the board. "WHAAAT?!" Mr. Koehne carved a digit on the board so vehemently that the chalk broke, but rather than bending over to pick it up, he simply depressed the top of his chalk holder and another length of chalk emerged. "WHAT?!" The faces of the other students in class were showing the pain Jim should have been feeling. Mr. Koehne added TWO to Jim's total!!! Then, one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen happened. Jim did something that elevated him to a place up at the top of the comedic hall of fame in my mind with the likes of George Carlin, Jonathan Swift, Matt Groening, David Letterman, Tom Robbins, and the Coen brothers. He silently, but with the skillful replication of a Shakespearian thespian, mouthed the word, "WHAT?!"
Well the whole class went crazy! This encouraged Jim Duck and he threw a few MORE silent WHATS at Mr. Koehne each more hilarious than the last. Soon Mr. Koehne was writing OTHER students' names on the board for laughing at Jim Duck. I wasn't laughing, I was crying! This was one of the times I got a number beside my name and by the time the laughter and chalk dust had settled, this was also the time Jim Duck's 50 was reached. A record I doubt has yet been broken even if Mr. Koehne is still teaching at John Knox Memorial Christian School.
I can't tell you what became of Jim Duck. I hope he's a highly paid comedian. The point of this salient anecdote was that the Friday of that week I saw Mr. Koehne talking with Jim Duck privately. The next Monday, Jim Duck's name wasn't even on the board never mind his FIFTY! The shitter was that every other student's names AND numbers remained unchanged! Jim Duck got a frequency pass and the rest of us got jack shit! In fact, the better behaved students were the ones who tended to be more closely watched and would get their names on the board for lesser offenses that Jim would get away with. I see a lot of Jim Duck in president Trump. The difference is, Trump doesn't make me laugh.
Trump pays more for sex than he does in taxes. No biggie. He spreads a new virus that he knows is deadly and has been recorded as saying as much. Ah, we'll let it slide. He has made mockeries of conflicts of interest and emoluments clauses. Well, he's special. He encourages Americans to break laws, he threatens to break presidential rules and protocol, he has an ever-growing list of associates in legal entanglements, he has committed crimes he'd be indicted for if not a sitting president and acts that he'd be impeached for... if he were not the president (ask Bill Barr about THAT masterpiece of spiralspeak!), and he's exhibited the cretinous, numbskullery that rivals the lowest of his supporters while disparaging OTHERS as "low IQ individuals." The guy has built up the biggest fudge factor, frequency pass, call it what you will, that I have EVER seen! If he publicly revealed the launch codes and locations of all the nuclear weapons in the US, or, God forbid, launched any of them, about a quarter of the population would be spinning clever webs of deceitful forgiveness at the moment we are all vapourized. Can there BE a more highly toxic positivity?
Compare all of that to Obama's tan suit. And Bernie Sanders scareword socialism. There are people who are more concerned about both of these than the Biblical plague of flies in the indefunkable Trump ointment! It's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen!
However, there IS another exit strategy for the poor fools who are enabling the presidential positivity. And we all know what that is. Although he has threatened NOT to honour the results of the election, a sort of heads I win, tails you lose strategy that his fatuous followers are sure to believe is as savvy as his business strategies of borrowing money and not repaying it, or just not paying taxes, if he loses, he's gone. He doesn't have the power to squat in the Whitehouse, he only THINKS he does. With the adulation of so many contributing to his already titanic ego, he believes he deserves not just 4 but 8 or 12 or 16 more years as president! As long as it keeps him from being Leona Helmsleyed.
If you are an American reading this post, break the toxic positivity. Vote NO for Trump. A vote for Biden is not a YES vote. Let's not kid ourselves. Biden will not fix the US. He won't even unfuck what Trump has fucked. This is the state of affairs in the US. But he WILL be better than 4 more years of the toxic positivity presidency. And maybe Trump WILL be out of the picture in 4 years and the chance of avoiding one of his spawn from oozing into the Whitehouse will be eliminated too. Maybe after 4 years of Biden/Harris, the US will be in a position to right itself. If you've ever heard the fable of the scorpion and the frog, it will help you understand Trump. He's a scorpion. The scorpion stings the frog HALF WAY across the water killing both him and the frog. With Trump you'll just have to go down with the sinking ship. But as you do, you can bet you'll be told that it's a good thing! Or Trump will go on TV and say, "Well, it is what it is."
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