Bad Mind: A Jamaican Super Power
A good friend once told me that “Bad Mind is not just active; it’s interactive.” This cultural phenomenon affects how we relate to each other and has infiltrated dancehall so much (I listed 99 songs here), that he might be right.
I define Bad Mind as negative thoughts, words and actions toward those of us trying to get ahead, simply because “dem nuh want see we prosper.”
This got me thinking: If Bad Mind is a naturally occurring mental energy resource, how could we exploit it to our advantage? Here are 4 types of Bad Mind, including 1 whose power I think we can harness for good.
The Origins of Bad Mind
Let me just say that I don’t think Jamaica has a monopoly on ‘Bad Mind,’ but our history created the perfect conditions for our unique variety to flourish.
We live in a post-colonial climate, where descendants of freedom fighters still struggle through generational trauma, unrealized potential and stunted dreams.
A past defined by antagonism, combined with our modern materialistic values, have produced at least 4 Bad Mind varieties.
1. 100% Pure Uncut Bad Mind
I define this as never putting in the work required to live your dreams, yet wishing for and creating misfortune for those who do. Persons with this affliction don’t want to see you prosper. Period.
100% pure, uncut, Bad Mind is highly toxic. As many songs suggest, I’d leave that one alone.
2. Conditional Bad Mind
Conditional bad mind is the trickiest variety, because it can alternate between friendly assistance to subconscious sabotage. It only kicks in when your prosperity changes relative to others’.
So someone wants to see you prosper, but just not as much as them. If they could admit how they truly feel, they would say “I’m highly critical/not supportive of your effort, because you’re doing better than I am.”
This volatility makes for unstable energy, so I can only advise that it be handled with extreme caution.
3. Borderline Bad Mind
Negativity toward others’ success could also be a cry for help. Consider Gary, who discovers his dream when he sees someone else living theirs. He wants to prosper too, but he just hasn’t figured out how, so now he’s bitter.
I think that if we intervene in time with the proper motivation and offer a clear path to success, we could channel Gary’s negative energy into Good Bad Mind. It’s a crazy idea, but it just might work.
4. Good Bad Mind
Good Bad Mind starts from an extremely critical place but inadvertently encourages excellence. Here the chronic fault-finder feels “I’m highly critical of your effort because I know it could be better. In fact, I know I could do it better.”
When Barry sees the Jones’s overcoming their own obstacles and getting ahead in life, his Bad Mind is activated and propels him to make swift, constructive moves to keep up with or outdo the Bad Mindee. If he not only competes but also innovates, this results in growing the pie instead of just eating a next man’s food.
We’re a small Caribbean nation. But we love to audaciously compete on the world stage with a bravado rooted in the belief that anything is within our reach.
I think seeing others win medals or achieve greatness triggers in us a bolt of “Eeeh? You call that ‘winning’? Hold mi beer.” Good bad mind when translated into healthy competition, can be a positive superpower.
Good bad mind when translated into healthy competition can be a positive superpower.
Honourable Mention: Negative Mind
I’m also giving honourable mention to the well-meaning critic who speaks negatively about others’ achievements, even when giving a compliment. This fault finder can sound like bad mind, but if interpreted kindly, she’s actually issuing a challenge for you to beat her high expectations.
She feels “I’m highly critical of/won’t vocalize support of your effort because I know you can and should do better.”
It’s like the time my 8 year-old self excitedly handed grandpa my report card thinking he’d be proud of my 99%. But he only looked up, squinted his eyes and asked “So weh the other 1%?” I now see this was his way of encouraging me to never settle for less than 100%.
They’re also so accustomed to critiquing, that they’re genuinely surprised when their expectations are exceeded. Sometimes speechless. How many times have you heard (or said) “That must be foreign. Cyaah be a Jamaican company,” when you see great packaging on the supermarket shelf? We get that all the time about our website design, and when we say we’re Jamaican, you can hear the mental gears shifting while the eyes open 👀.
This desire for high quality but low expectation of local performance motivates us to want to always blow this stereotype away, as part of the rising tide of quality creative design.
Bad Mind builds Heroes
Bad mind has been a villain for generations, challenging the relentless spirit of Caribbean people, and bringing out our heroic competitiveness.
There’s a lot of ‘fight’ in our DNA, and at our best, we harness it for good.
But to be the heroes our countries deserve, we have to choose wisely what we will use our powers to ‘fight ‘gainst,’ and fight for.
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