The Quiet Strength of Positivity in a World Obsessed with Toughness

Why embracing empathy and optimism is a radical stand in an often ruthless world

Photo by Andre Furtado

I have recently returned to social media activity, particularly X (Twitter), where I describe myself as a “spiritual entertainer.” For the most part, I post insights on life using philosophy and spirituality or, rather, my twists of Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism, Taoism, Stoicism, or other great cultures suited to modern times. I’m not even trying to reinvent the wheel. I’m just trying to popularize these wonderful cultures and their timeless wisdom.

Finding new authors and quotes or organizing my thoughts on paper comes naturally to me. And somehow, I’ve found an audience that seems to enjoy morning quotes from some inspiring authors or quite random but always positive or encouraging insights throughout the day. Great, everyone’s happy. Well, not entirely.

While I’m not even expecting to make everybody happy, it’s shocking that positive and encouraging content can be naive or childish for many people I’ve encountered online and offline over the years. Some extremists even act aggressively, seeing positive content, but most consider it simply irrelevant, knowing how ruthless our world is. Somehow, developing toughness or even cynicism is often…