For those of us in the tax prep business, March is truly a long march. Interestingly, the most stress comes not so much from the work itself but from keeping up with life outside of work when you have such little time to run errands and take care of the mundane minutia of life, like grocery shopping or folding laundry. At least that’s the case for me. Hence a day off is often a time for catch up, for such of life’s little things.
That was the plan for yesterday, Sunday, my one day weekend. But a friend told me to “do something that lights you up” and I took her advice and went up to San Francisco to hear Bernie and to #feelthebern from other Berners. The really was at Great Meadow Park at Fort Mason, not far from the Warf and the Golden Gate bridge. Here are a few of the sights from the scene:
Looking through my alumni magazine from the U. of Virginia, I came across a summary of some disturbing published research conducted by Eileen Chou in the Public Policy Dept. Based on her findings Chou contends that, while we might say we prefer positive-messaging cheerleader types, “we instinctively empower naysayers” — people who exhibit an “unbridled and vitriolic style of discourse.” These naysayers’ willingness and ability to flout norms with impunity signals power “untethered from any social constraints or dependence on other people’s resources.” Participants in Chou’s studies would be more likely to vote for naysayer political candidates because they expected these negative candidates would be more effective in office than positive candidates.
Well we’ve certainly seen the power of negativity in Trump’s regime. I wonder if Sanders’s attacks on the 1 percent draw more enthusiasm from potential voters than his positive policy stances.
LikeLike