Looks like I got a little delete happy yesterday and deleted Jeff and Colin's comments on this post. Sorry guys. Feel free to come back and comment again, I promise I won't nuke them this time.

My good friend Colin posted a new Random 60 today that is actually quite profound:

“It seems that people are spurred on to talk about the bad more than they are about the good. If your cable goes out, your car won’t start, or your cell phone loses coverage — you complain. This is understandable. I do it too. But all that does is spread that negativity. Lets stop spreading as much negativity and try to be positive now and then. Lets be real (don’t be fake-positive) but lets try to keep it balanced at the very least.”

What Colin has touched upon is how susceptible we are to the allure of the mob. Looking at social behavior, it is much easier to create an angry mob, than a joyous mob. Mobs appeal to the need to be "treated fairly" we all have, whatever that means to each person.

Passions such as anger, hatred and indignation are like a field of grass that has sat languishing in the blistering sun during a drought, brittle and dry. It take a very small spark to set the entire field ablaze.

I think that on many levels we know this as authors. Add to this fact that being positive and happy is looked upon as passe and naive in todays society and you can see why the trend is to complain on blogs, tweets, etc.

Colin is right though, we are better than this. The most beautiful, positive and moving things ever brought into existence were created specifically to capture joy, whether it be on canvas, film, stone or paper, and give it to the rest of us.

Added to all this is the fact that we are in the beginning of what most experts believe will be a long recession where many people will be fighting to just survive, let alone get the newest Apple product and then complain because it only came in silver and black. We will be surrounded by negativity from the media.

Lets all take a moment and join with Colin to start making a Joyous Mob. Take 5 minutes to say something positive in a public forum. There is never a time where there is a complete absence of light in our lives, spread that light around a bit, you will be surprised what can happen. Here's a place to start:

REPLACE THIS WITH A POSITIVE MSG - #r60 http://bit.ly/19r0Vm