For most of the 21st century, a mob of Grinches has controlled American culture and politics.

These are the Chicken Littles who have wailed that “climate change” would doom the planet. They are the sorcerers who declare that men can become women and vice-versa, who despite the blood-stained evidence of a hundred years proclaim the virtues of communism, who reinstituted racism through DEI initiatives. They are the iconoclasts who tore down statues and mocked the Constitution, the educators who have graduated legions of young people who can barely read or cipher and know almost nothing of history, the politicians who pontificate about problems without having the spine to tackle them.

The results? An embarrassing number of Americans now lay claim to some sort of victimhood. A record number suffer from emotional and mental illnesses. Irrationality in public affairs now seems the norm. The country has become so divided that even the sexes have gone to war with each other.

Perhaps worst of all, optimism, that can-do attitude that was once a hallmark of the American spirit, seems as dead as our knowledge of the past. In his 1902 book “As a Man Thinketh,” James Allen writes of men and women, “As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.”

The idea is old, but how often do we keep it in mind? If we’re daily surrounded by mostly negative thoughts and fail to keep them at bay, then we’ll become those thoughts, just as Allen says. Imagine the state of America today had our ancestors been so drenched by these downpours of negative thinking.

So, what are some ways we can intentionally channel our thinking out of this swamp and into the brighter waters of a living stream? How can we reorient ourselves toward realistic optimism?

The Company You Keep

Our family and friends, fellow workers, the books we read, the music we hear, the movies we see, the online news we follow: all make deposits in the bank of our brain. Some of this coinage is solid gold, some is counterfeit or dirty money.

In my younger days, for instance, Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe were the gods in my pantheon of great writers. In the last 20 years, however, I’ve shifted toward authors like Dostoevsky, Dickens, and other storytellers who offer redemption and hope rather than despair.

Another example: During the Covid pandemic and the tumultuous years of the Biden administration, my editors at two different publications insisted I submit articles that ended on a positive note. The articles could begin by citing difficulties and rough situations, but they had to finish by uplifting readers rather than bringing them down. That habit stuck, demonstrating that a calculated optimism can be learned.

Courage

Ours is an affluent age. We have food, shelter, medical treatment, and technology that even the greatest of kings of any previous epoch would envy.

Yet so many people live in a state of fear.

In certain situations, fear can be a lifesaver, but today’s negative news, so often false or tilted to attract an audience, erodes hope. Statistics show that Gen Z is particularly vulnerable, a circumstance truly unfortunate, for the young ideally should look with anticipation to the future.

What’s lacking in many cases is courage. Winston Churchill considered courage “the first of human qualities because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all the others.” Given that viewpoint, all virtue stands on the foundation stones of fortitude and grit.

Courage comes from facing our fears. In the case of negative news, courage begins with a shield and armor made of common sense, the ability to discount negative news that either doesn’t affect us or that we in turn have no power to affect. Life will throw us enough hardballs without fretting over the headlines.

Best of All: Gratitude

Of these three weapons against our age of negativity, gratitude is the most powerful. Sadly, though gratitude is called the “parent of all virtues,” it’s amazing how few people practice it.

In her book “The Gratitude Diaries,” writer and television producer Janice Kaplan explains how she intentionally pursued gratitude – keeping a gratitude journal, discussing the topic with others – and how it transformed her life. As she notes, developing this talent for appreciation and thanksgiving can affect your children, your marriage, your work, and your entire outlook on life.

Like so many people, I was a latecomer to the practice of daily gratitude. I wish my parents had asked me every evening at supper what I was grateful for, and I wish I’d done the same for my children. It takes a while to unwrap this hidden gift of appreciation, but we all possess it, even when we don’t know it.

If you want to break away from fear, start with gratitude. Be patient, and eventually you’ll begin seeing the world the way it is, unclouded by all the negative narrative.

We weren’t meant for lives of fear and misery. If that’s your predicament, time to beat a path into the sunshine.

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image credit: Flickr-Sander van der Wel, CC BY-SA 2.0