What "motivates" me to smirk

I'm a critical thinker. That is actually a helpful quality to have when doing theology, exegesis and apologetics. It's the thing that allows me to see through the veneer of an argument and spot the weaknesses rather quickly.

However, critical thinkers can easily become cynical thinkers if they’re not careful. They can seem overly argumentative in a conversation, overly challenging in a classroom situation (these are some of the worst students a teacher or professor can have if you don’t know how to handle them), and they can start to see nothing but what's wrong all the time. I'm an oddity in that regard since I fall the other way. I'm actually an extremely optimistic person--almost to a fault. I never worry about anything, and I always believe that God will "work things out" in any sticky situation.

One unifying characteristic of critical thinkers is that they usually have a wry sense of humor. That is certainly true of me—which is why people sometimes don’t get my subtle jokes, or are surprised that I would actually engage in a joke. Everyone enjoys humor; it’s just a matter of what kind of humor.

One of my favorite sources of humor is poking fun at nauseatingly trite clichés. I’m certain you’ve seen the Wayne Dyer-inspired, Amway-perpetuated motivational posters, such as:

ACHEIVEMENT!

SUCCESS!

TEAMWORK!

CHALLENGE!

Or, my personal favorite . . .

HANG IN THERE!

. . . with the kitten clinging by his front paws on a horizontal pole. Each motivational poster is accompanied by some “inspirational” graphic, such as a runner at the starting block (DETERMINATION!), a runner crossing the finish line (SUCCESS!), a man climbing a mountain (PERSISTENCE!), or some other such scene.

Motivational gimmicks like that cause a critical thinker like me--ok, a cynical person--to roll his eyes and ask the obvious question; If someone is actually able to manipulate you into being motivated by a poster of a kitten on a pole, how deep can that motivation really be?

That’s why I appreciate humor, satire and parody that exposes such shallowness. Here are some of my personal favorites that spoof the motivation industry:

AMBITION!

DISCOVERY!

PERSISTENCE!

TEAMWORK!

GOALS!

INDIFFERENCE!

INDIVIDUALITY!

INTIMIDATION!

MEETINGS!

REGRET!

MEDIOCRITY!

MISTAKES!

PROCRASTINATION!

STUPIDITY!

INCOMPETENCE! (This one is especially applicable to a certain Roman Catholic epologist that many of us know :)

MOTIVATION! (This one, I think, says it all)

Now, it you don't think these are humorous, you're probably not a critical thinker : )

Anyway, you can see the entire collection at despair.com.