U.S. soldiers brainwashed with "positive thinking"

[Enrique]

http://www.alternet.org/world/147637/american_soldiers_... /

(...)

The U.S. Army is planning to require that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take intensive training in positive psychology and emotional resiliency. Army Research Psychologist Capt. Paul Lester, who leads the assessment of the program, told the National Psychologist (“Army to Train its Own in Positive Psychology,” July/August 2010), “As far as I can tell this is the largest, deliberate, psychological intervention in human history. . . . We don’t know when the global war on terrorism is going to end so we’re preparing to have to be engaged for a long period of time.”

Lester said the program would develop “communication skills, cognitive reforming skills and help soldiers not to catastrophize -- don’t think of the worse case scenario about every potential problem.” The program also teaches soldiers to focus on “expressing appreciation” and “correcting negative views of ambiguous events.”

In August 2009, the New York Times reported that Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army’s chief of staff, said the total cost of this program would be $117 million. The New York Times was alerted to the program by psychologist Martin Seligman, director of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center, who has been consulting with the Pentagon. Seligman’s particular program at Penn is costing the U.S. Army $25 to $30 million, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, which in its profile of Seligman (May 30, 2010) noted that he “confidently walked the line between grand and grandiose”; and it quoted him asserting, “We’re after creating an indomitable Army.”

(...)

“Why is he tasking us again for this job?” the classmate asked, pretending to be Sgt. Cole. “It’s not fair.”

Sergeant Cole gave the “correct” positive-thinking response, “Maybe he’s hitting us because he knows we’re more reliable.”

While positive psychology makes some sense for teenagers who are catastrophizing their first relationship breakup to the point of becoming suicidal, how much sense does it make to teach soldiers who are trying to stay alive in a war zone to put a positive spin on everything? Moreover, wouldn’t soldiers like their officers to consider worst-case scenarios before ordering them into combat? And wouldn’t soldiers like politicians to take seriously worst-case scenarios before embarking on a war? The healthy option to negative thinking is not positive thinking but critical thinking. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Bright-sided and astute critic of the dark side of positive thinking and positive psychology, points out:

It’s easy to see positive thinking as a uniquely American form of naïveté, but it is neither uniquely American nor endearingly naïve. In vastly different settings, positive thinking has been a tool of political repression worldwide. . . . In the Soviet Union, as in the Eastern European states and North Korea, the censors required upbeat art, books, and films, meaning upbeat heroes, plots about fulfilling production quotas, and endings promising a glorious revolutionary future. . . .The penalties for negative thinking were real. Not to be positive and optimistic was to be ‘defeatist’. . . . Accusing someone of spreading defeatism condemned him to several years in Stalinist camps.

[Orrex]

1. I hear that General Bobby McFerrin has been tagged to spearhead this "positive thinking" initiative.

[Swede]

5. Always Look On The Bright Side of Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ

[gratuitous]

2. "Creating an indomitable Army"

Gosh, it seems I've heard things like that before, but where? Hmmmm.

[Solly Mack]

3. Yeah, I've seen a few of the infomercials on AFN

with the positive thinking spin.

My first reaction was jaw-dropping incredulity.

[Orsino]

4. Hooah.

One wonders how the fuck much more positive motivation the troops can stand, and what difference it could possibly make in an eternal state of war.

[JohnyCanuck]

6. Yeah that should fix any morale problems pretty quick.

Just give each grunt a copy of Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" along with the M16 and grenade launcher, then when their vehicle hits an IED in the road they can think positive thoughts as their legs and genitals are separated from the rest of their body.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Killing is FUN!! And, you get medals for doing it!!

[Newest Reality]

8. Programming biobots for the Forever War?

They don't know when it will end because they never want it to. The bogyman is immortal and they might as well go after Freddy Kruger and follow him into our dreams.

Human programming is already prevalent, so this is nothing new. It is becoming more refined and less covert as people accept the vision projected on them of the Simulation Hive-mind.

Thinking is either free and includes not only the Yin-Yang polarity of positive and negative, but the endless permutations and shades in between, or it is not. We are seeing a deeper descent into the thought control required by corporate monoculture in order to continue its rigged game of delusions.

[Hydra]

15. Quite right

Interesting how in the "Land of the Free" you're not even allowed to think the way you want to.

Not that it's a new thing, but as you say, it's becoming more overt.

[rrneck]

9. The best thing to tell a soldier for positive motivation

is, "You're going home."

[Morning Dew]

10. I've got a feeling

that

Tonight's gonna be a good night

for the Black Eyed Pea Brigade!

Go out and smash it (Smash it)
Like Oh My God (Like Oh My God)
Jump off that sofa (C'mon)
Let's get get OFF

[Fleshdancer]

11. I can't speak for every soldier I know....

but if I had to guess, I'm pretty sure they would all think this was bullsh*t. Talk about a waste of money.

[Vickers]

12. "don’t think of the worse case scenario about every potential problem"

That's pretty much the exact opposite that we were taught.



"Prepare for the worst, and aim for the torso."

[Enrique]

13. that's why you're so negative

c'mon turn that smilie's frown upside-down.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Yeah, that doesn't even make sense. How can you keep yourself safe if you don't

evaluate all the possibilities and sort out how you will handle them?

[janet118]

16. "Private! Did you just have a critical thought?" "Sir. No, sir!!" n/t

[L0oniX]

17. Yea that works when you are killing someone I suppose ....

like as in accidentally killing civilians ...women and children ...oh yea that's right ...they are just "bug splat" ...yep that is the term they use.

[JoeyT]

18. And always remember

Anything bad that may happen to you wasn't because of poor leadership, bad decision making by higher ups, or because you were in a war that was a bad idea to begin with: It's because you weren't thinking positively enough.

That's pretty much the end result of the "positive thinking" brainwashing. Anything bad that happens to you is your fault.


"Not to be positive and optimistic was to be 'defeatist'" That sounds kind of familiar.

[grasswire]

19. this used to be called BRAINWASHING

And it's a very frightening development.

[Iterate]

20. Smile or Die: The Tyrany of Positive Thinking

Barbara Ehrenreich on fora.tv:

Smile or Die: The Tyrany of Positive Thinking
http://fora.tv/2010/01/11/Smile_or_Die_The_Tyrany_of_Po...

or if you prefer:
"Bob, I got a bad feeling on this one, all right?"