An Applied Strategy of Dread and Hope

I've long since given up on trying to sway people's opinions about things through arguments, especially on Facebook where most of my friends see me as a sad eccentric. Instead, I've adopted a fact based approach. I present observations without value statements attached. I don't process the facts into value based information and conclusions. I leave that up to each one to do for him or herself.

This strategy is based on ideas from a year ago. In my post on how to convert the vaccinated, I suggest a combination of dread and hope. In the case of the vaccine, merely bringing it up as a topic is enough to inflict a sense of dread, so there's no point in any additional stunt. I'm no longer wearing my don't do drugs T-shirt. It's too explicit and dark in these days of increasing anxiety about the long term effect of the vaccine.

Knowing that the mere mention of excess deaths since 2021 causes anxiety, I focus on the hope aspect of the strategy, which is to underscore positive developments and downplay anything negative. My latest posts on notable deaths and Monkeypox, were both framed with this in mind.

This is the opposite of what others often do. However, nothing is achieved with a doomsayer approach where negative news is emphasized and good news is ignored. It merely comes across as vindictive and mean, and those who agree with us will abandon us because our predictions will hardly ever pan out due to our overly pessimistic approach. We end up as the grumpy ones that no-one takes seriously and hardly anyone likes.

Without optimism, predictions fail because nature is resilient and capable of repair. A lack of optimism will also fail to convert anyone into seeing things our way, because no hope is offered. There's nothing but dread, and therefore nothing to gain from listening to us. However, with hope thrown into the mix, we'll find people willing to listen, because we'll provide them with reasons to be hopeful. We'll also be right in most of our predictions.

Another reason why we should add hope to our strategy is that we never know who might suddenly find themselves in need of proactive hope. Our message is neither one of pure doom and gloom nor one of baseless hope. We give reasons for our optimism, and it is this reasoned optimism that provide hope that we can believe in.

As it turns out, my brother in law is in need of this type of hope right now. He had a heart attack the other day, and he's currently in intensive care. The situation is bleak, and the last thing he needs now is a doomsayer telling him that all hope is out, and that it's all his fault for having taken the vaccine and booster.

Tellingly, my brother in law is turning to my wife for help despite knowing full well what we think about his situation. He's not shunning us. He might even be revising his views on things. Hopefully, he'll refrain from taking the next booster when it's made available to him this fall.

Family outing in Porto