It’s Only An Insecure Person
That Requires Everyone
To Believe The Same Things
Gallop Poll does a survey at the end of each year (End of Year Survey) to measure optimism about the coming year. They ask respondents if they think things will be better, worse or the same.
Compared to the past ten years expectations are low at the moment. According to Gallop, 29% believe 2025 will be more prosperous, 35% believe it will be economically difficult and 31% say it will be the same as the last 12 months.
That last category, the Same, is revealing because at present, confidence levels are at some of the lowest degrees of all time. Not the GOAT but the WOAT.
Expecting things to be the same is the equivalent of expecting things to be as dismal in the future as they’ve been in the recent past. What that means is a total of 66% of those responding had a bleak outlook. Things aren’t looking too good. Hope is generally not up.
And, of course, the question is why is that so? What’s contributing to the negative perception?
One answer would be the government (aka the President).
Nine years ago Obama was finishing his final term as President and things looked very good. There were naysayers and antagonists for sure, but public perception in general was at an all time high.
That period of positivity was followed by Trump and that’s when public perceptions (along with the economic realities we live with at the moment) began to slide. The slide continued until we are hovering at close to all time lows and according to Trump’s own words it will get even worse before it gets better.
In other words, the thing Biden worked really hard to avoid and did a fair job at curbing, Trump is not just embracing but provoking.
But Presidents aside, religion is to some degree guilty too. If you go to church regularly, you’re getting a consistent diet of philosophical negativity. Since fundamentalism is very much in league with the Trump movement, it is fair for us to look a little deeper. We need to understand the what and why of fundamentalism’s negative effects.
I know about this negativity because I played that roll for many years, decades even. [Read more…] about Fundmentalism’s Biggest Flaw – Negativity