Alexandra Wolfe on the deleterious effects of TMPR (Too Much Positive Reinforcement):
We’ve become so inured to the idea that a person’s self-assessment need not be changed by a little thing like repeated and utter failure that no one was the least surprised when Joe Lieberman took so long to throw in the towel. Before New Hampshire, he said, “The people of New Hampshire put me in the ring, and that’s where we’re going to stay.” Jon Stewart on The Daily Show put it best: “When did our elections become the Special Olympics? You’re not all winners. Not everybody gets a hug. You guys got crushed.”
Sorry I haven’t posted anything in 10 days. I’ve been busy at work, traveling for a conference, and doing a lot of formulating for longer essayistic VM entries (pop music, foreign policy, translations of love, and the white whale I call Gold/Stopwatch).
Also, I’ve been battling a mini-depression, but I like to pretend I’ve overcome it (of course, if I had, I wouldn’t be writing this sort of thing at 12:30am on Sunday/Monday, but hey).