Using Technology to Deepen Democracy, Using Democracy to Ensure Technology Benefits Us All

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Mama Cass Elliot and Julie Andrews Help Make Amor Mundi More Positive

2 comments:

RadicalCoolDude said...

Carrico: [...] Help Make Amor Mundi More Positive

I may be wrong but I think you started posting music videos under the sarcastic theme that they helped make your blog more "positive" because you were routinely accused of being too "negative" by your critics from the Robot Cult.

I therefore thought you might enjoy the following articles.

Why Fake Optimism Is the Worst Way to Deal with Life's Problems

Barbara Ehrenreich: The Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

Why Negative Thinking Makes the World a Better Place

Unbearable Darkness? Why negative emotions are good for your health

P.S. I didn't intend this to be a conversation so I hope me spitting out links in this context is OK. ;)

Dale Carrico said...

Sometimes the posts are ironic, sometimes they really are pick-me-ups. I've actually read and enjoyed the Ehrenreich book. I think posting links without engaging with them, intervening in them, contextualizing them is just spamming. The Moot actually is for conversation -- your own, not ventriloquization -- so you should think about why you are in it at all if you don't intend at least to engage in banter in it. Never forget that I'm a teacher, and I'm always trying to figure out what it is an interlocutor is thinking for herself. I appreciate your attention, but it bugs me that you hide behind links rather than actually engaging with my arguments. I wish I had some sense of a person there, especially since you've been reading this blog for quite a while and surely that suggests a real intellectual investment.