The Purpose Of Crushpessimism.com

IN THE 1830s, SOMETHING HAPPENED that changed the lives of millions of trout in the Great Lakes. The Welland Ship Canal and the Erie Canal were built, allowing a fish called the sea lamprey to enter virgin waters, where they had no natural predators and their prey had no natural defenses against them. The sea lamprey had always been barred from the Great Lakes by Niagara Falls. But after the canals were built, the lamprey feasted and multiplied and spread up the lakes. The trout population was nearly wiped out.

From 1937 to 1947, the trout catch in Lake Huron fell from three and a half million pounds to almost nothing. In Lake Michigan, U.S. fishermen caught five and a half million pounds of trout in 1946. By 1953, the catch had dropped to four hundred and two pounds!

The lamprey looks like an eel, but unlike an eel, it lives on the fluids of other fish. It attaches to a fish with its suction-cup mouth. The fish thrashes about wildly but cannot break free. The lamprey not only has strong suction, but its sharp rows of teeth grab the fish firmly. Resistance is futile.

The lamprey uses its sharp, bony tongue to drill a hole in the side of the fish and then it drinks until it drains all the fish's fluids. When the lamprey is full or the fish dies, it detaches and goes looking for another fish to drain.

We're going to use lampreys as a metaphor for the devastating effect pessimism, cynicism, and defeatism have on the human mind. Negativity has a way of attaching itself to your mind, draining you of your health and ability — not metaphorically, but literally.

In this blog, you'll read some of the scientific research showing how pessimism, cynicism, and defeatism produce heart disease and strokes, encourage the development of cancer, and even weaken your bones. You'll see how these three negative ways of thinking and perceiving the world can take away your creativity, your persistence, and your ability to achieve your goals. You'll find out how they work to undermine your relationships, ruin your sense of humor, and destroy your ability to solve problems.

Taken together, pessimism, cynicism and defeatism are a lamprey of the mind, a deadly parasite, and this parasite uses your lifeblood, your energy, your mind, to breed and spread to other minds, using and destroying life force wherever it goes.

You obviously care about having a good attitude. I carefully chose the title of this blog as a filter. Rather than trying to appeal to as many people as I could, I tried to create a title that would only attract a certain kind of person: Someone who cares about the world, who tries to be positive and who wants to have a good influence. You see the destructive effects of negativity and you want to do something about it. You are who I was looking for.

Good intentions and basic understandings are a good start, but they're not enough to win a war against so insidious an enemy. The lamprey has invaded. In this blog I'll compile the knowledge and weapons we need to fight the good fight and win.

So let's get to it. Together, let us destroy the lamprey of the mind and bring back the determination, the positive attitude, the openness, the love, the accomplishment, and the self-expression that was once native to our minds.

A good thing to read next is: Points of Vulnerability.