Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Heart Of The Matter


"Despair is a dividend paid to disaster before it is due" - Sir Winston Churchill

From Joshua Pundit:

This is where things get real.

A number of my readers and other people whose opinion I respect deeply have let me know that the recent debacle in Washington has disheartened and disturbed them to the point of despair.

I hope none of you take what I'm about to say personally, but I think the obituaries are a mite premature...and even harmful.

Part of what fuels decadence (and eventual destruction and defeat) is the belief that everything is rotten beyond repair, so why even try anymore? If enough people feel that way, then they contribute to the defeat and it's over. So it's important to act with optimism and positive energy even when it seems hopeless.

One of the things that surprised me in reading Winston Churchill's history of World War II is how frequently he succumbed to despair during the run-up to the Second World War when he could see where things were headed, and afterward,when he finally took power and the Nazis were expected to invade at any moment.

Sir Winston referred to these periods of depression as 'the black dog'...but he made a point of never sharing these emotions with anyone, and indeed made a point of acting especially cheery and unperturbed when things seemed darkest. And there were plenty of such moments.

He understood instinctively one of William James' basic principles of psychology, that moods are infectious and affect others and that a positive attitude, even a partially feigned one, can have positive results.

And there are positive results to be had. We have a country to win, and one that's worth fighting for.


Go read the whole thing.

3 comments:

Carlos Echevarria said...

Sir Winston was the greatest politician of the 20th Century, in my opinion.

I love that man...a visionary against the Bolsheviks and then the Nazis, on top of Stalin, Cold War.

He would drink profusely by the way, brandy in the morning, champagne, but had a constitution that would have a high tolerance.

Pastorius said...

Yes.

If only I had such a constitution.

;-)

Anonymous said...

Obviously drinks led to mental disorder.. study shows that many people are on binge drinking..leading to diminish ability to think rationally..envious of others successes and strong keeness to spread hatred against black president(obama, against germans, against russians, against japanese.. retard lots may you lots rot in hellfire forever..