Attitude or Circumstances

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Positive Circumstances do exist.
Negative Circumstances do exist.

Positive attitudes do exist
Negative attitudes do exist.

There is an underlying belief in America (If I am interpreting correctly) that attitude causes the circumstance not the converse which is the circumstance causes the attitude. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? What is the reasoning behind your answer?

If you state attitude causes the circumstance then what is attitude's antecedent whether the attitude is positive or negative?

If you state that attitude is the antecedent to circumstances then can you prove correlation and then can you prove causation? Even if you can prove it what are the conditions that this proof holds up? Are there exceptions? If yes, what are these exceptions?

I'm too lazy to research this question right now and I'd probably have to take several courses before I could even understand some of the stuff I find anyway. There's the genetic factor that I wouldn't know how to interpret for example. I'm not sure how that would influence our brain chemistry and our attitudes but I'd bet that it plays a significant role.

If I had to take a wild guess I would say attitude comes first.

If you believe that genetics plays a significant then is this not a circumstance? If it is a circumstance and genetics is truthfully a factor then what is the reasoning, premises and underlying logic to your answer? I do have issues with pragmatics so I may be misunderstanding you.

Okay you got me there. If you consider your genetics to be a part of your circumstances then my half-assed answer changes. I didn't think of it that way but if your genetics are out of your control then I guess it is circumstance.

I vaguely remembered reading somewhere that most people in Western societies believe that attitude affects circumstances whereas most people in Eastern societies believe that circumstances affect attitude.

I would say that the way in which specific circumstances mould attitude are somewhat varied based on a person's nature (genetics). I'd also say that certain attitudes, however they're developed, are more adaptive than others.

So, causality goes both ways.

Both have an element of truth to them.

If you are an outstanding positive person, you will see the best in situations and you will be attractive to people who like to be around positive outgoing people.

Hence, positive attitude = higher chance of positive outcomes.

Likewise, being overtly negative means you see the worst in most everything and tend to be a downer on everyone around you.

Hence, negative attitude = higher chance of negative outcomes.

However, it is false that a positive attitude will magically change reality into something other than it is. Bad stuff happens. Bad stuff exists, and you can't hide from it.

I think the YouTube vid is titled "Smile or Die." It's all about the pathological way Americans are obsessed with "positive thinking" to the extent that they will ignore real problems because of the social taboo to say anything negative about a situation.

The key is to be balanced. You are either an optimist or a pessimist. An optimist must not allow themselves to be deluded about how good things are (ignoring real threats to be addressed) and a pessimist must work to try and find the good in every situation so that they aren't missing out on the potential available to them.