The Dark Side of Positive Emotions Is Hidden in Plain Sight
“Near Enemies” are hard to spot and masquerade as the real thing
Everyone knows the most pleasurable and self-serving behaviors in life also come with the biggest downsides.
You only have to wake up with a banging headache after a sugar and alcohol-fuelled binge to get that.
Less easy to see, however, is that what are often considered positive and selfless acts may also have many undesirable, and even harmful, consequences.
This is to be expected when your intentions are to get wasted and forget the world.
But when aspiring to be nice and do good in the world?
How could you go wrong?
The proverb “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” comes to mind.
Even with the best of intentions, it’s still possible — sometimes even more likely — to cause yourself and other people harm.
As the proverb alludes to, by seeming so gracious and virtuous, good intentions can actually blind us with the glowing white light of the moment from seeing where we’re actually heading.
In Buddhist psychology, there’s a name for this phenomenon.
