There is a well-known experiment by a psychologist named Martin Seligman, where he administered controlled electric shock to a cage with a dog inside. At first, he would only let the electric current run on portions of the cage. He would see the dog move to safety to the unelectrified sections of the cage. But on one test, he electrified the entirety of the cage and there was no safe surface.
At first the dog tried to find a safe spot, but when it realized there was none, it just slowly lay down in one spot of the cage and accepted the shock. Even in subsequent experiments where there was a safe spot on the other side of the cage that could be reached by jumping over a low barrier, the dog did not try to escape. This experiment brought about a famous concept in psychology called "learned helplessness". In a nutshell, it is about how both animals and humans can learn to be helpless in situations where they perceive harm as inescapable.
Seligman would later become known for his work in the field of Positive Psychology. The focus of this field is directly opposite to that of inducing learned helplessness. It is about looking at strengths rather than weaknesses, and developing healthy coping when faced with problems.
But, personally, I think Positive Psychology these days have gone on to spawn ideas that seem to circle back to Seligman's learned helplessness, namely those ideas that has been termed collectively as "toxic positivity". Many people are already familiar with this term casually. It is typically used to indicate something that seemingly glorifies only the positive aspects of a situation to the point of appearing to dismiss its legitimate negative sides, just to avoid experiencing negative feelings. "Walang nega, good vibes lang" is a colloquial phrase that easily comes to mind.
I think both animals and humans have an innate drive to reject helplessness. Faced with adversity, an instinct kicks in to fight back. Some may call this survival instinct. But, I think, if it is to be a healthy and sustainable quality, it has to do with something more than just survival. Mere survival is not enough of a reason to sustain perseverance amid difficulties. To supplement survival, some have added pleasure-seeking into their life's goals. At best, it means to chase your happiness, whatever that may be for you. At worst, it gets people caught up in chasing false leads to get to more money, more power, and just more of everything, until greed takes over and no amount of reason can get them out of the endless chase. Just as in learned helplessness, a wrong assumption had already been formed, and they are now helplessly at the mercy of getting more money and power, stuck in a rat race, like a drug addicted person chasing the next fix. Some say, we should temper baser instincts with faith or religion. But we know that comes with its own poison - unreasonable dogmatic extremists who impose their belief system on others while they live a hypocritical lifestyle unmoored from their own beliefs. In all cases, it brings to mind the image of people who are surviving, but who are nonetheless helpless and broken.
So how can we truly go through difficulties without letting our spirits break? How can we live above mere survival and not settle for toxic positivity, broken pleasure-seeking, or fatalistic beliefs? I truly believe no one can answer that for another person. Every person has to find that answer for themselves. But no one can answer something without asking it first. Sadly, for too many people, even the act of asking themselves this simple and, to my mind, an all important question, goes neglected. It is buried as a priority way below daily distractions and activities, unscheduled leisure and scheduled work -- never to surface again until perhaps at a final, regret-filled hour.
I have asked myself this question many times, but my answer won't matter here, because again, it might not be your answer. But, I will say this, I believe that compromise do not mix with values and principles, and that change for the better is not meant to be slow. And, I think that if psychology can prove to us that helplessness can be learned, or reveal that positivity can be toxic, then perhaps it can also give evidence to another side of the human condition. One that can reflect the idea that to be driven to realize progress founded on unwavering values and principles is as much a part of the human spirit as any other instinct we might have.
