i won't do what you tell me: rebranding optimism

I Won’t Do What

You Tell MeRebranding Optimism

'

Hope!Positivity!

Bright sides!

Silver linings!

Happiness!

Hunter S. Thompson

Pussy Riot

Henry Rollins

M.I.A.

Tupac Shakur

Johnny Cash

3 Ingredients:

There is a traditional optimistic story that runs as follows. Our hero is a prisoner who has been sentenced to death by a tyrannical king, but gains a reprieve by promising to teach the king's favourite horse to talk within a year. That night, a fellow prisoner asks what possessed him to make such a bargain. He replies, 'A lot can happen in a year. The horse might die. The king might die. I might die. Or the horse might talk!' The prisoner understands that, while his immediate problems have to do with prison bars and the king and his horse, ultimately the evil he faces is caused by insufficient knowledge. That makes him an optimist. He knows that, if progress is to be made, some of the opportunities and some of the discoveries will be inconceivable in advance. Progress cannot take place at all unless someone is open to, and prepares for, those inconceivable possibilities.The prisoner may or may not discover a way of teaching the horse to talk. But he may discover something else. He may persuade the king to repeal the law that he had broken; he may learn a convincing conjuring trick in which the horse would seem to talk; he may escape; he may think of an achievable task that would please the king even more than making the horse talk. The list is infinite. Even if every such possibility is unlikely, it takes only one of them to be realized for the whole problem to be solved. But if our prisoner is going to escape by creating a new idea, he cannot possibly know that idea today, and therefore he cannot let the assumption that it will never exist condition his planning.”——David Deutsche, physicist“Progress cannot take place at all

unless someone is open to, and

prepares for, those inconceivable

possibilities.

[Several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what

quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature &

which Shakespeare possessed so enormously. I mean Negative

Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties,

Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.

Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude

caught from the Penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of

remaining content with half knowledge. This pursued through

Volumes would perhaps take us no further than this, that with a great

poet the sense of Beauty overcomes every other consideration, or

rather obliterates all consideration. – —John Keats, poet“Negative Capability... that is, when

man is capable of being in

uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts,

without any irritable reaching after

fact & reason.

K i l l i ng in the name o f

Some o f t hose tha t work fo rces , a re the same tha t bu rn c rosses


And now you do what they to ld ya

Those who d ied a re ju s t i fi ed , fo r wear ing the badge , they ' re the chosen wh i tes

You jus t i fy those tha t d ied by wear ing the badge , t hey ' re the chosen wh i tes



Some o f t hose tha t work fo rces , a re the same tha t bu rn c rosses


And now you do what they to ld ya

And now you do what they to ld ya , now you ' re under con t ro l





Come on !

F* * * you , I won ' t do what you te l l me

F** * you , I won ' t do what you te l l me








—Rage Against The Machine, band

“F*** you, I won‘t do what you tell

me.!

Understanding problems.

Comfort with uncertainty.

Defiance.



Defiance.

“"We can’t possibly know..."



Defiance.


““"and I’m fine with that..."



Defiance.

“““"so f*** you, I’m trying

anyway."


““"and I’m fine with that..."

I Won’t Do What

You Tell MeRebranding Optimism

'

i won't do what you tell me: rebranding optimism

Presentations & Public Speaking

chosen whites

horse talk

justi fi

immediate problems

tyrannical king

kings favourite horse

fellow prisoner

man of achievement