{"id":2523,"date":"2018-06-04T16:29:06","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T21:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/?p=2523"},"modified":"2018-06-04T18:09:44","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T23:09:44","slug":"be-positive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/?p=2523","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Be Positive!&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>4 June, 2018<\/p>\n<p>(. . . whatever the hell that means.)<\/p>\n<p>On the front page of my local paper (<em>Wilmington News Journal<\/em>, March, 15, 2018) is an article titled &#8220;Remembering the Victims&#8221; featuring local high school students with a sign marked, &#8220;WHS for Positivity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So, as the popular expression goes, I would ask, &#8220;What does that even mean?&#8221;\u00a0 It has the same depth of meaning as, maybe, &#8220;Be nice&#8221; with about the same ethical clarity.<\/p>\n<p>Why might I make a big deal about it?\u00a0 Because it points up larger social and ethical problems: &#8220;definition deficits&#8221; and &#8220;Truth denial.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What is right and what is wrong?\u00a0 And how do we know one from the other?\u00a0 And if we don&#8217;t know, then how do we know what is &#8220;positive&#8221; and what is &#8220;negative&#8221; behavior?<\/p>\n<p>We usually attempt to &#8220;clarify&#8221; the matter with other equally unclear expressions like &#8220;healthy.&#8221;\u00a0 What is &#8220;healthy&#8221; behavior?\u00a0 Without a standard for morality one man&#8217;s &#8220;health&#8221; is another&#8217;s misery &#8211; in the moment.<\/p>\n<p>And don&#8217;t just use your imagination.\u00a0 Imagination without God is an exercise in insanity<\/p>\n<p>Wake up call, once again, to the Big Ten.\u00a0 And we&#8217;re not talkin&#8217; football.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4 June, 2018 (. . . whatever the hell that means.) On the front page of my local paper (Wilmington News Journal, March, 15, 2018) is an article titled &#8220;Remembering the Victims&#8221; featuring local high school students with a sign marked, &#8220;WHS for Positivity.&#8221; So, as the popular expression goes, I would ask, &#8220;What does [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2523"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2527,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions\/2527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}