It is important to recognize and politics positive thinking is

The words of James Bovard — “It is important to recognize, and politics, positive thinking is often the slaves' virtue — something that people do to con themselves about the burden and change being placed upon them.” — pierce like a prophet’s warning. They unmask the shadow side of optimism, showing how rulers may encourage the oppressed to dress their chains in flowers. What is hailed as resilience can, in darker truth, become submission — the quiet acceptance of injustice cloaked in the illusion of hope.

To call positive thinking the slaves’ virtue is not to scorn the spirit of endurance, but to reveal how power can twist it into a tool of control. When men and women carry heavy burdens, they are told to smile, to “make the best of it,” rather than to resist. In this way, false cheer becomes a substitute for true freedom. Bovard reminds us that what seems like strength may sometimes be a mask, concealing the refusal to confront the chains of oppression.

History itself gives witness. Consider the Roman Empire, where slaves were often praised for their cheerfulness, their loyalty, their songs sung in service. Yet beneath such “virtue” lay enforced silence. Or look to the plantations of the Americas, where enslaved Africans were urged by masters to embrace faith and positive thinking, not as a path to freedom, but as a salve to endure their bondage. Still, in secret, many transformed those same songs into cries of rebellion, sowing the seeds of eventual liberation.

The burden and change Bovard speaks of are the heavy costs imposed by those in politics, who often preach optimism while stripping away rights. The slave told to think positively is much like the citizen urged to accept corruption or war as necessary, consoling themselves with hope rather than demanding justice. Here, optimism is no longer a virtue, but a weapon wielded by the powerful to pacify the powerless.

Let the generations remember: true hope does not deny burden, but seeks to cast it off. Positive thinking is noble when it fuels resistance, when it steadies the heart against despair. But when it numbs the will to fight, it becomes the slave’s chain, polished to hide its rust. Bovard’s words endure as a fiery teaching: be wary of optimism that asks you to endure injustice rather than to change it. For the virtue of the free is not false cheer, but courage, and the will to transform the world.