A positive attitude is not going to save you. What it's going to do is, everyday, between now and the day you die, whether that's a short time from now or a long time from now, that every day, you're going to actually live.
Because our fight has been for such a long time we are isolated from the world, even after reconstruction we don't have much attention from people outside.
It is about this very abstract sense of displacement that he feels the moment he turns off the television.