What is Pronoia? - Another Point of View
With so much talk about paranoia and the effects it has on people; especially in our line of work, I wanted to present this.
Pronoia is a Greek word meaning, care or forethought. It's having the sense that there is a conspiracy that exists to help the person. It's often used to describe a philosophy that the world is set up to secretly benfit people. In a religious context it means Providence or Divine Providence — the wise and benevolent provision for all our needs by God.
In days of old the term: pronoia was used to denote a system of granting dedicated streams of state income to individuals and institutions in the late Byzantine Empire. The system differed in significant ways from European feudalism of the same period.
Interesting as this may be; how does it apply to us? It's all about attitude.
The way I see it: Pronoia is the antidote for Paranoia. This has been reitierated in statements such as: glass half empty or half full, the grass is always greener across the fence, etc.The nest time someone wants to dump their paranoia thoughts on you, usually presented as excuses, you can turn the conversation in a more positive direction with the introduction of this way of thinking to them.
May be just the thing that captured their attention long enough to get them to take a look at what you are offering when presenting WA and another referral. Or over to your niche site and become a customer.
I'm trying different ways to demonstrate how to think outside the box and write posts that grab peoples attention and become responsive. How'd I do?
Recent Comments
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Love the post very interesting thank you learned a new word and meaning, something to mull over thank you
Very knowledgeable and informative!
If you're akin to it, you might try loosening up the word flow with an image or two, but I'm a "bad" one to say it, haven't done it yet, either!
Thanks Theresa, good observation. I haven't figured all this out and may not for some time. I am still working on my site, I need to learn social networking and get connected and the list goes on. Good to see ya! ~Gaylon
Very well written post, thank you for sharing it.
Never really thought about the opposite word to paranoia, but I should have known that there is always an opposite to every word.
That's why I love the WA community so much, because there is always something knew to learn and to observe. :)
Sylvia
Thanks for the kind words Sylvia, I am going to follow you, I like your comments. All the Best! ~Gaylon
So true, but I stay away from the topics or religion and politics here at WA. Believe me I don't want on a soapbox...and you don't want me there either! LOL
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You did a great job Gaylon! Thanks for this information and we all know that our mindset is the key!
Sheila