YIELDING TO MY POSITIVE NATURE

With the proliferation of political propaganda being programmed upon us during the pre primary period (OK I’ll try not to do any more of that), I have been moved to ponder (whoops) on why those seeking for public office are so prone (I give up I can't resist the ‘p’ key) to negative campaigning. Poller’s and Statistician’s tell us it is because it is effective and brings the desired results. Today I would like to explore a few different possibilities as to why we see so much negativism as we experience and observe relationships during our daily routines.

Saul, of Biblical antiquity, exhausted all the means the powers of his kingship afforded him to disparage and eliminate his anointed successor. The more voracious Saul’s attacks on David became, the faster the followers of the young shepherd giant killer grew numerically. One has to wonder what the history of Israel might have been had it not been founded on this jealousy inflicted civil conflict. We ponder on whether Saul’s vehement tirades became stimulus to the fanatical dedication of the followers of David.

As the accounts of the life of Jesus the Christ begin in the New Testament we once again find the reigning powers made up of the foreign Proctors and the local Sanhedrin using all in their power to disparage and eliminate the Restorer of Righteousness. They challenged Him at the Temple and in the courts. They sought and bought testimonies of those who might speak evil of the Galilean. They eventually brought about His death using false testimonies in an illegal sequence of trials. They put Him to an ignominious death meant to shame Him in an absolute manner. With every blow aimed to bring Him down and prove Him to be a false prophet, His followers increased in numbers and devotion.

From the recorded events of Paul the apostle we observe the same pattern being repeated. Those in power positions were constantly throwing every negative proposition at his teachings and his mission in an attempt to stop the newly founded fellowship of the followers of the ways of The Christ from invading their synagogues and market places. The more the negative propaganda flowed forth the faster the adherents gathered to hear and embrace the doctrines of light and truth.

In recent history The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has also had a similar situation evolve as they introduce and construct Temples in new locations. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the city is called Frankfurt, Denver, Bogotá or Newport Beach the inevitable pattern seems to evolve. Negative propaganda flows, objections are mollified, construction is completed and then interestingly, attendance at local meeting houses increases and converts are baptized in growing numbers.

As Election Day in California nears I have noticed that as the frequency of political ads increase there is a proportionate increase in the negative vehemence of the campaigns. First off, I must state that these ads increase my reflexes on the remote, but since I've lost a lot of my quickness I am still able to identify the antagonists before the electronical leap occurs. Sadly, many times the new channel greats me with an equally negative political propagandizing commercial. Besides the obvious tactical error of providing the opposition with all kind of negative fodder which can be used after the primary elections are concluded, I have a sneaking suspicion that I am not the only one listening who is turned off by negative political campaigning. It is almost like I end up casting my vote for the candidate who has been slightly less negative in their campaigning.

As I have pondered upon all this negativism and my attendant revulsion to it I have been brought to wonder if some of the following thoughts might be worth considering.

During my advanced degree seeking days it was constantly pounded into me that I was to examine every new thought and idea with skepticism and doubt. That only by this type of open investigation would I be able to eventually begin to approach reality. Even though the inquisitive part of my life up to that period had always been overloaded with an abundance of doubt I soon found that investigation by doubt became a bottomless pit from which I often found no escape. Although the pounding of the skepticism and doubt research methodology was constant and forceful, I sometimes bravely ventured out to explore ideas from the point of view of why they might be true and at least to my own satisfaction I discovered that I was often arriving at levels of truth that I felt were both valuable and somehow seemed as if I was remembering a teaching from another time in another place.

As I have spent the last five plus decades of my life studying and discussing ideas and thoughts with student/friends young and old, it didn’t take me long in this life path to discover that to most the discussion of sinning, sinners and damnation was attended by cloudiness filming over eyes and the slumpage of spines while centering on concepts of repentance, atonement and salvation brought brightness to eyes and an erectness to spines. Because of the accumulation of these results in the classroom and in more casual conversations I have moved more and more steadily to believe that by our natures we are ‘Beings’ drawn to and by optimism and positiveness.

During these decades I often found myself occupied in positions of stewardship which by their nature put me into multiple moments of counseling and giving advice. I was never totally comfortable in these situations, since I knew that all was not totally on track in my own development. Therefore, I found myself saying in my mind ‘who am I that I should…’ (I suspect it was during this time that I most fully gained gratefulness for the whisperings of the Spirit which added to my small stack a generous amount.) During these sessions whenever the stimulus for the meeting was the unwise use of the Eternal principle of agency, it wasn’t long before the realization came that this damaging decision was made during a time of some degree of depression and a lack of self worth. It became evident than when a person’s self image and self worth were at healthy levels they were prone to make better choices which led to growth rather than causing them to be rutted in repetitious ruination.

All of this has caused me to believe that He who is All Good, the Creator of the created, instilled in His offspring a nature of positivism and optimism, causing us to be filled the forwarding faith which stirs in us the Everlasting hope that existence is indeed Eternal and that the trial of mortality is but a small moment in our journey. I have further been caused to believe that it is the Adversary, he who desires our misery, who is constant and unrelenting in his attempts to fill our lives with negativism, pessimism and worthlessness.
Therefore, I conclude that the pathway of happiness leading to joy is paved with heaven laid beautiful polished tiles which help me yield to my Eternal positive nature.