If there is one casualty of this recession/depression culturally I'll be happy

[AllentownJake]

That cultural plague is the "positive thinking" self help cultist bullshit movement that has developed over the past 30 years. I call it the deny reality movement.

I don't want it to be replaced with a negative thinking movement, I want it to be replaced with realism, realistic expectations, critical thinking, and realistic accountability.

This movement has its origins in corporate America, and was generally developed to brainwash lower levels of management as they were about to be forced to do some really shitty things to their employees at the behest of upper management. It is used as a justification to do horrible awful things.

Basically the goal is to suppress negative emotional reactions to things people would ordinarily find to be negative actions or news that would result in a negative emotional response to and thus reduce the response and increase compliance with going a long with the negative action.

This movement has spread from corporate America to every aspect of our culture from churches to schools to politics to even economics somehow and those people should know better.

Your company announced it is about to lay off 10,000 workers, instead of having a negative reaction towards the leaders that have lead you to a place where 10,000 people lose their income, you need to think about the opportunities you will now have, even if you are one of those 10,000 workers!

Lobbyist manage to pull the reform out of a given bill, and while the bill will give help to some people, they have managed to secure large subsidies for their organizations in exchange for that help which will be expensive and paid for by reducing other benefits. Don't look at the reform you wanted, look at the wonderful help we are giving in this area!

Consumer Confidence drops during a recession/depression, instead of saying, well people are scared because there is high unemployment and businesses are closing in their area, I hear honest discussions on how we get consumer confidence back up in this environment. Newsflash, people that hear that their neighbors and friends are getting laid off, have a perfectly natural and intelligent response to put extra money away and spend less in case it happens to them.

The beautiful thing is, it makes people who are using critical thinking the enemy. By thinking something isn't good, you instantly are now a thought criminal and are bringing the success of everyone around you down.

It has spread like a disgusting plague into every facet of our culture and the quicker it is stamped out and buried in a deep grave, the better America will be.

Negative emotions and negative emotional responses to stimuli is a good thing. When you put your hand on a hot stove, you experience pain. It is a survival mechanism. The same thing can be said about bad news. You experience pain when you hear it, the pain is natural, and it is meant for you to have a reaction to it for survival.

[ixion]

1. Denial of Reality has been a common collective trait for thousands of years

I think it started long,long ago as a survival mechanism to allow you to continue hunting and/or foraging despite desperate conditions.

That mechanism has been captured by the concept of "civilization" and has been exploited -- probably without exception -- by every government that ever existed.

I think it's important to try and stay guardedly optimistic when facing bad situations. However, it's also important that the reality of the situation is accepted for what it is.

That's where we get into trouble.

[AllentownJake]

3. Guardly optimistic

Is not what this is about.

When you are a sheep being prepared for the slaughter, the natural response should not be a willing march to destruction because the slaughter seems like a nice guy.

[ixion]

4. "the sheep smear sheep" as the saying goes

those who aren't sheep don't even get into the chute. Those who do, well, I'm not sure what to do about those folks. They're just not too bright.

[sendero]

5. There are times..

... when denial of reality is actually the best course of action. If there is well and truly nothing you can do about a situation, focusing on it probably doesn't help.

However, the economic problems facing all of us does not qualify. For the vast majority of us there ARE things we can do.

But there are sure plenty of people here that want to convince themselves otherwise. It will be too bad for them.

In any event as anyone who has read more than a few of my posts would have to know, I'm not much on the positive thinking bullshit - as my grandmother would say, wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.

[AllentownJake]

11. No doubt

There are situations where it is beneficial to block out what is really going on, but generally speaking, those are situations where statistically, you have a pretty good shot at about to die.

[alterfurz]

16. Humankind cannot bear very much reality. --T.S. Eliot

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool. -- Richard Feynman

[TheWatcher]

2. Honored to be the first rec on this incredibly thoughtful Post.

Well said Jake.

You really managed to layout this modern version of "Superior Indifference."

And you are correct, it is time for it to end.

It is time to face reality, and figure out the best way to deal with it, instead of living in a false reality that only aids in the further destruction of what is left of the country.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. While we're tossing out the trash

can we throw the putrefying remains of 'prosperity theology' on the heap as well? It's merely a faith-based variation of the 'positive thinking' scheme mentioned in the OP, incorporating bad theology into the faulty paradigm of which you speak. As the following article (from The Atlantic) suggests, 'prosperity theology' may have played a role in fueling the housing crash.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200912/rosin-prosperity-gospel

Couldn't the sham philosophy of 'positive thinking' in general be at fault? I've been resisting the tendency to blame the actual individuals who took out mortgages and other loans they couldn't afford, preferring instead to blame the financial institutions who took advantage of gutting regulations and played loosey-goosey with writing loans, and I still feel that way. Unqualified optimism played a role, however, by helping fuel demand in the first place.

[AllentownJake]

7. Jesus Christ never preached the gospel of prosperity

In fact, what he had to say was the opposite of such a Gospel.

Some Christians are too lazy to read their own book.

[sendero]

10. EXACTLY..

... I've talked about this a couple of times here and got no traction.

I truly believe that part of the enabling of our current economic mess was done by the "prosperity pimps" claiming that god wants you to have a BMW and a tract mansion and that if you will just give to the church he will deliver those things to you.

Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Bible would understand that Jesus doesn't give two shits about your material wealth and even thinks that too much of it is a bad thing.

But I believe a LOT of people bought into this bullshit and that gave them the mental justification to enter into debt that they normally would not have entered into, creating another big driver of our current DEBT CRISIS.

Well for anyone that bought into that nonsense, the smackdown might not be swift but it will be severe. God is not going to make your payment, learn what your religion is really supposed to be about.

[AllentownJake]

13. Actually

From my experience, it wasn't debt, it was the ability to justify anti-social economic actions which would normally make a Christian recoil to obtain material wealth, and they would cleanse themselves by sharing that wealth with the church.

Mostly the non-denominational churches.

The beautiful thing about being a non-denominational pastor, you don't have a ruling body over you to correct you when you misinterpret 2000 year old established doctrine and tenets of the faith but you still get the cross.

Not all non-denominational churches are bad, and not all denominational churches are good, however in the Protestant wing of the church, the guys and congregations that seem to get in the most trouble are always the independent operations.

[Cirque du So-What]

14. Nondenominational churches are potentially dangerous

Once the pastors are 'off the reservation,' they're free to impose their personal perversion of theology onto their parishioners without oversight. This enables these maverick pastors to build a cult of personality that has even less to do with actual theology and more to do with personal enrichment and other forms of manipulation. One name: Jim Jones.

[AllentownJake]

17. He's an extreme example

There are two types of leaders in non-denominational churches.

1) Educated graduates of traditional theological seminaries who end up having a disagreement with the denomination they started in

2) Non-educated Jesus freaks.

Now of the two, you have to see why they had the disagreement. Martin Luther, after all was an educated man who objected theologically to some tenets of the church.

The non-educated Jesus freaks are the real dangerous ones. They are generally very good sales people and charismatic public speakers with limited knowledge of church history.

You have a church with a 2000 year old history. It is best for someone to be reasonably acquainted and well read with it's theorist and theologians over that history before they start telling people they know what they are talking about.

[Cirque du So-What]

18. I've actually encountered people

who defend their uneducated preachers by claiming that theological seminaries are hotbeds of heresy. Their 'anointed' preachers have a personal hotline to gawd that bypasses the man-made institution of the seminary, so knowledge & wisdom get piped directly into their pastors' heads. 2,000 years of philosophy and interpretation are worthless in their estimation.

:eyes:

[AllentownJake]

30. Well if you think your leader is a prophet

There is generally no help for you.

The entire reason an understanding of church history is necessary, is God, has been used to justify some pretty awful things with some awful results, and it is best that someone who is going to teach people about God, know what the consequences of their words may be.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. For all the problems with organized religion, UNORGANIZED religion

causes more problems, mainly because anyone can declare himself a minister without going through the multi-year vetting process that mainstream clergy go through.

If you're in a liturgically oriented mainstream church, you hear Scripture readings on a set schedule, the Revised Common Lectionary. That includes all the anti-greed passages, all the "love your neighbor" passages, and all the other passages that the megachurches ignore. In fact, if you attended every Sunday for three years, you'd hear all four Gospels read in their entirety.

Megachurch preaches tend to choose their pet passages, whatever their obsession is.

[AllentownJake]

36. Yes and there is an obsession with the Old Testament

generally taken out of any historical or Judeo theological context.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

38. And only the "smiting" passages of the Old Testament, not the

prophets who are the ultimate basis of the Jewish tradition of social activism.

If you read aloud a modern-English version of what some of the later prophets say about the rich and the poor, your average uneducated American would think that those passages came from leftist political tract.

[AllentownJake]

40. Yes

The economic crimes of the rich were spouted in the same sentences as the warnings of worshiping foreign Gods and sexual immorality. Actually the economic crimes appear to be the first thing on the prophets minds.

A little Amos, kind of sounds a little like Dennis K, if you take out the I'm going to destroy you with fire from the sky and send your troops fleeing naked.

7 They trample on the heads of the poor
as upon the dust of the ground
and deny justice to the oppressed.
Father and son use the same girl
and so profane my holy name.

8 They lie down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge.
In the house of their god
they drink wine taken as fines.

9 "I destroyed the Amorite before them,
though he was tall as the cedars
and strong as the oaks.
I destroyed his fruit above
and his roots below.

10 "I brought you up out of Egypt,
and I led you forty years in the desert
to give you the land of the Amorites.

11 I also raised up prophets from among your sons
and Nazirites from among your young men.
Is this not true, people of Israel?"
declares the LORD.

12 "But you made the Nazirites drink wine
and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

13 "Now then, I will crush you
as a cart crushes when loaded with grain.

14 The swift will not escape,
the strong will not muster their strength,
and the warrior will not save his life.

15 The archer will not stand his ground,
the fleet-footed soldier will not get away,
and the horseman will not save his life.

16 Even the bravest warriors
will flee naked on that day,"
declares the LORD.

[laughingliberal]

55. I once attended one of these churches for a few months while in Texas

and that is the God's truth. They preached the Old Testament relentlessly and picked a few (no more than 25) pet passages out of the New Testament which they bastardized into totally misleading meanings.

[Caretha]

21. Yep ....

and it's been part of the American propaganda for a long time, hence Janis Joplin's song "Oh Lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz".

[sendero]

22. I thought it was a newer phenomenon..

... but yes you are right. Song was relevant in 1970 too.

[Berry Cool]

45. Indeed

The overall message from the Bible is not that Jesus is going to make you rich if you serve him but that if you serve him you may well have to make sacrifices--but not to worry because God isn't going to leave you stranded with nothing. The "lilies of the field" message--"Stop worrying, just do the right things and trust that I will take care of you. I won't necessarily make you rich, but you will have what you need."

[Jennicut]

8. Tony Robbins? If i never see him again on my tv that would be great.

[AllentownJake]

9. Well Tony has managed to make one person rich

Tony.

[HughBeaumont]

43. That's what's absolutely hilarious about BS artists like Sheets, Byrne, Kiyosaki and Robbins.

No one seems to get that these people are SALESPERSONS first. Has anyone delved into what made these people who they are? All they ever did in life was make money . . . telling people either how to make money or think positively, without ever having to perform their own actions themselves.

There's never really any specifics, blueprints or hard templates on what it is YOU should do or HOW you should do it. It's all about "Sell the Mystery, Not the Mastery". All of these programs are engulfed in a bed of fluff and gas. It helps no one, really.

[AllentownJake]

47. Well it helps the sales person

Snake oil salesmen of the 21st century. 100 years ago they were snake oil salesmen, 1000 years ago they were called alchemist.

My ex's favorite book was titled that by that Cohelo fellow. I kind of laughed after reading it and its message.

Alchemy for sure.

[laughingliberal]

56. Alchemy doesn't work?

Damn! That was my ace in the hole. :sarcasm:

[GoCubsGo]

41. Rhonda Byrne, too

Her New Age bullshit "The Secret" claims that positive thinking is a "magnet for health, wealth and prosperity." If that were true, I'd be richer than Warren Buffett. But, since I have given up hope, I have been much happier.

[AllentownJake]

42. I think the philospher Janis Joplin once said

Freedom is just another word, for nothing left to lose.

[bbgrunt]

62. ...not to be nitpicky, but that song was written by Kris Kristofferson, not JJ.

and I agree that denial and the "positive thinking" imperative have acted as an "opium of the masses" which allows the ptb get away with the unthinkable.

[AllentownJake]

66. Oops

:blush:

When you base an ideology on accentuating the positive of anything that is happening, the people determining what is happening can do just about anything.

[Edweird]

12. It quickly turns into 'blame the victim'. It's complete bullshit.

[HughBeaumont]

44. Oh yeah, "positive thinking" is completely rotated around "blame the victim".

It's all about this "Laws of Attraction" crap. As if it's somehow YOUR FAULT you get bad parents, bad jobs, bad teachers, bullies, people who can do you absolutely no good in life and just plain bad LUCK.

[laughingliberal]

58. That is the most abusive part of it

Those in these churches who meet with adversity and hard times are accused of not having enough 'faith.' I once knew a couple whose congregation ostracized them when their child died as their 'faith' was not strong enough to save their child.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. You Are Spot On

It reminds me of Greg Kinnear's role in "Little Miss Sunshine"

Along with that you can throw out the "tough love" advocates. Tough love is in order when people are contantly complaining despite favorable objective conditions. When a person's objective circumstances are awful he or she has every right to complain and is deserving of empathy, compassion and support.

[laughingliberal]

59. Problem with 'tough love' in the hands of the wrong people is

it generally focuses on the 'tough' and forgets the love. I've mostly seen it as an excuse to be mean as crap to people by people who like being mean as crap.

[MinneapolisMatt]

19. I really appreciate your post.

You put your finger on the pulse of something that has been bothering me for a long time, but didn't quite know what it was.

Thank you. K&R. :)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. He Should Do One On The "Tough Love" Advocates

~

[AllentownJake]

27. People get confused

"tough love" originally was a term used to stop enabling behavior. Someone is engaged in a self destructive behavior, you stop providing someone with resources to continue to engage in the risky self destructive behavior. By providing resources to the person to engage in self destructive behavior, you are in fact an accomplice to the person's self destruction. I'm a firm believer in that.

It has now been expanded to now anyone who may be critical of something, needs to be shut up and people in need of legitimate help, must "help themselves" first by adopting some sort of thinking pattern.

Saying something sucks, is the first step in changing it.

[Celebration]

23. it really isn't either/or

One can be happy in the face of adversity, if one chooses. Nor does that mean that one drops realism or critical thinking. There are very happy people that are also critical thinkers, and realistic. There are also unhappy people that are critical thinkers and realistic. Likewise there are people that are not critical thinkers and realistic. Some are happy and some are unhappy.

It is everyone's choice, of course. It seems to me that a happy person is more able to have the energy to harness resources that can make a positive difference in the world. The unhappy may become tired, depressed, and withdrawn.

Just my two cents.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[On the Road]

46. What's Wrong with Celebration's Sentiment?

I can't find any fault with it.

I think you're focused on a specific misuse of positive thinking, namely justifying layoffs. I have seen it misused, too -- multilevel marketing organizations do it all the time. But IMO that's a result of someone casting around for an idea that will make them money or at least make them feel better.

Dale Carnegie is old hat, but he has some pretty good advice. A lot of folks have become better people by taking it to heart.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. How About A Person Whose Income Has Disappeared And Has To Rely On The Fragile Charity Of Friends?

Where is his or her source of happiness?

[Celebration]

28. let me ask you this......

Does happiness depend on having money? Some of the most miserable people I know are rich.

Having friends willing to help is more than many rich people have.

Why wallow around being unhappy just because the circumstances are challenging? Frankly, that doesn't make sense to me, NOR is it realistic.

[AllentownJake]

29. Well that is a much different philosphy

If someone has internalized that philosophy they are much better off if they are not focused on the material success in the world, however, they need to be cognizant of their needs for survival and when those are threatened.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. How Do You Pay Your Bills If You Don't Have Money?

And how can be happy if you are homeless and carless?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

39. There's a difference between objective realization that one's circumstances are terrible

and off-putting self-pity.

Furthermore, people who have suddenly lost their monetary safety net have suffered a real loss. They need to go through a period of mourning before they can do anything about their situation.

Now I have met REAL self-pitiers, but nowadays, there are literally millions of people who genuinely need sympathy and understanding and acknowledgment of their pain, not bright-eyed, chirpy platitudes, before they can start to climb out of their Slough of Despond (1000 points if you recognize this literary allusion).

[Celebration]

75. we certainly need to acknowledge people's pain

Any emotion that they are feeling just "is". It isn't right or wrong. There should be no judgment on people who don't choose to feel happy. However, it might serve them better to choose to feel emotions that help them get out of a financial hole. Unhappiness is unlikely to do that.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

77. "Choose"?

I guess you have no experience of clinical depression, then.

[Celebration]

78. it's a choice

However, it *is* a subconscious choice. People consciously may want to feel happy. But subconscious stimulus/response conditioning could have led them to be stuck, notwithstanding their conscious desire to be happy. But there are various ways to deal with the subconscious.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

79. You just answered my question

You obviously are spouting what some guru told you and not speaking from personal experience.

Look, I KNOW that happiness does not depend on external circumstances. But some situations really DO suck and no happy talk is going to change that.

[Celebration]

80. that's all I am saying

Happiness doesn't depend on external circumstance. Some situations suck, and are extraordinarily challenging. While it might be easy for people to sink into depression in such circumstances, it isn't productive or desirable. Therefore it is best to try to avoid this, or address it.

[Skittles]

88. what kind of dreamworld do you live in?

[raccoon]

89. Are you a "Course in Miracles" fan, by any chance? nt

[HughMoran]

86. Your posts in this tread are thoughtful

Nice to see - keep it up...

[marmar]

26. Yep. There's nothing wrong with optimism, but it needs to be reality-based....

..... We've reached the delusional stage.

[KG]

32. you didn't even have to leave DU in 2007, when it started to unravel, to find people

claiming the downturn was happening because people were thinking negatively.

conversely there are those that think coz a democrat's in the WH, everything is going to be flowers and rainbows. we just gotta believe!

Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a book last about this phenomena: Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (2009).

[AllentownJake]

34. A loss is a loss

There is a legit process people go through when dealing with a loss. It is called grieving. It is healthy.

This positive thinking nonsense is designed to stifle that process because generally during that process there is significant self discovery and awareness. If you go through the process in reaction to a loss of trust in an institution, part of that process is understanding the institution cannot be trusted.

Negativity is dwelling on your losses way past a time you should I don't advocate that. I do advocate that people go through the natural grieving process because it is generally there that the critical thinking that is needed to survive develops.

Part of that process involves anger and depression and there is no way to avoid that.

[laughingliberal]

64. Exactly! And without going through the normal, healthy grieving process

we see some people fall into a pathological form of grief some years later when another loss occurs. Another condition seen is cumulative grief. Either of these conditions can be quite destructive to a person's emotional health.

[AllentownJake]

68. You can't put off pain

You can anesthetize it but you can't put it off.

[bbgrunt]

70. thanks for that book reference; I knew she had

written something about this in the past year or so, but it sank out view very quickly.

In terms of economics however, the psychology of business/consumer expectations definitely have a self-fulfilling effect on overall economic activity--up to a point (that point being when the bubble bursts and expectations begin to reverse)

[Lorien]

83. Sounds good:

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ehrenreich (Nickel and Dimed) delivers a trenchant look into the burgeoning business of positive thinking. A bout with breast cancer puts the author face to face with this new breed of frenetic positive thinking promoted by everyone from scientists to gurus and activists. Chided for her anger and distress by doctors and fellow cancer patients and survivors, Ehrenreich explores the insistence upon optimism as a cultural and national trait, discovering its symbiotic relationship with American capitalism and how poverty, obesity, unemployment and relationship problems are being marketed as obstacles that can be overcome with the right (read: positive) mindset. Building on Max Weber's insights into the relationship between Calvinism and capitalism, Ehrenreich sees the dark roots of positive thinking emerging from 19th-century religious movements. Mary Baker Eddy, William James and Norman Vincent Peale paved the path for today's secular $9.6 billion self-improvement industry and positive psychology institutes. The author concludes by suggesting that the bungled invasion of Iraq and current economic mess may be intricately tied to this reckless national penchant for self-delusion and a lack of anxious vigilance, necessary to societal survival. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com When Barbara Ehrenreich was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, the sharp-eyed social critic found herself nearly as discomfited by the "pink ribbon culture" surrounding the disease as by the illness itself. Relentlessly upbeat, cloyingly inspirational, the breast cancer world, as Ehrenreich describes it, is a place where anger, fear and depression -- all perfectly reasonable responses to a potentially mortal diagnosis -- are frowned upon and the cancer itself is lauded as a great opportunity for spiritual growth. In this cocoon of optimism, the prevailing opinion is that cancer is a gift, a chance to become closer to God, to find life's true meaning. It's not a tragedy; it's a rite of passage with an enormous upside. "What does not destroy you, to paraphrase Nietzsche," writes Ehrenreich, "makes you a spunkier, more evolved sort of person." Why, three centuries after the Enlightenment, is American culture so bewitched by magical thinking, elevating feelings and intuition and hope over preparation, information and science? Why do so many of us seem so willing to discount reality in favor of vague wishes, dreams and secrets? And has this gospel of good times delivered us not into a life of ease but instead into a worldwide economic meltdown? Ehrenreich's examination of the history of positive thinking is a tour de force of well-tempered snark, culminating in a persuasive indictment of the bright-siders as the culprits in our current financial mess. She begins with a look at where positive thinking originated, from its founding parents in the New Thought Movement (inventors of the law of attraction, recently made famous in books such as "The Secret") through mid-20th-century practitioners like Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie, to current disciples ranging from Oprah Winfrey to the preachers of the prosperity gospel. We're not talking here about garden-variety hopefulness or genuine happiness, but rather the philosophy that individuals create -- rather than encounter -- their own circumstances. Crafted as a correction to Calvinism's soul-crushing pessimism, positive thinking, in Ehrenreich's view, has become a kind of national religion, an abettor to capitalism's crueler realities and an overcorrection every bit as anxiety-producing as the Puritans' Calvinism ever was. Bouncing from cancer lab to motivational business meeting to megachurch, Ehrenreich tests the theses embedded in American positive thinking and finds them wanting. Studies proclaiming a link between a positive attitude and cancer survival, she finds, are full of problems and discounted by most researchers. Furthermore, she points out, the popular insistence that cheerfulness can help beat the Big C, while it can be "a great convenience for health workers and even friends of the afflicted, who might prefer fake cheer to complaining," leaves patients in the uncomfortable position of having to hide or deny their very real anger and sadness, even to themselves, for fear of being complicit in their own illness. As for the tests and formulas devised by practitioners of positive psychology, an academic field that receives major funding from ultra-conservative groups (such as the Templeton Foundation, which also bankrolled the Proposition 8 campaign to overturn California's same-sex marriage law), Ehrenreich points out that the "real conservatism of lies in its attachment to the status quo, with all its inequalities and abuses of power." Unlike scholarship that aims to understand or ameliorate social problems, positive psychology focuses only on the individual's attitude toward those problems, meaning it's a short skip to the point of view that happiness or unhappiness is entirely a function of how a person feels about her circumstances. But what if your circumstances are awful? How on Earth is one to parse the Satisfaction with Life Scale developed by positive psychologists? Can you say "In most ways my life is close to my ideal" if you've just been laid off, or if you face medical bankruptcy because you're uninsured? What if you're a slave or a refugee? If all that stands between you and the good life is a positive attitude, as positive psychology posits, then the only person you have to blame if your life isn't good is yourself. The author deploys her sharpest tone to eviscerate the business community's embrace of positive thinking. Offered as a sap to those facing layoffs, used as a spur to better performance by those workers who remain (often while enduring cuts in pay and benefits) and relied on as an excuse to ignore unpleasant inevitabilities like bubbles bursting, American positivism reaches its giddiest and most dangerous heights in the corner office. Although our current economic mess has complex and varied causes, Ehrenreich's aim here feels all too true. "Recall that American corporate culture had long since abandoned the dreary rationality of professional management for the emotional thrills of mysticism, charisma, and sudden intuitions," Ehrenreich writes. "Pumped up by paid motivators and divinely inspired CEOs, American business entered the midyears of the decade at a manic peak of delusional expectations, extending to the higher levels of leadership." Gripped by "runaway positive thinking," the markets rose and rose until reality receded into the far distance. Little wonder that it hit so hard when we all fell. [email protected]
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

[Lorien]

84. Also these two reader reviews, which relate to the OP as well;

The dark side of positive thinking, October 13, 2009
By Todd B. Frary (Atlanta, GA USA)

With "Bright-Sided" Barbara Ehrenreich delivers the same sharp assessments she delivered in Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, in this case a trenchant look into America's obsession with presenting a "positive" image at all times and at all costs. Spurred by her own reaction to a bout of breast cancer Ehrenreich came face-to-face with the near obsessive culture of positivity, which led to her questioning not only what purpose it serves, but how it came to exist. While Americans like to project a "positive" cheerful, optimistic and upbeat image we seldom reflect on why our culture insists upon this particular norm. Ehrenreich traces the origins of this "cult of optimism" from its origins in 19th Century American life up to the present prevalence of the "gospel of prosperity" in churches, "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness" in academia and in literature. Ehrenreich points out it is most pervasively rooted in business culture where the refusal to deal with negativity (potential and real) has resulted in a rash of negative outcomes, from the S&L crisis of the 1980s/1990s to the current mortgage led economic downturn. As with "Nickel and Dimed" Ehrenreich revels in not just mythbusting but in exploring corners of society seldom plumbed or contemplated. For Ehrenreich this lack of introspection and dealing with negativity in an appropriate manner has led us individually and as a society to "irrational exuberance" and now near disaster. Ehrenreich is at her best poking fun at the pseudo-science of positivity and poking holes in positivist theory.

Obviously Ehrenreich isn't for everyone and certain some people who insist on positivity in their lives will simply refuse to read such a potentially negative book. But Ehrenreich isn't a "negative Nelly" as some would fear; she's speaking truth-to-power and to a certain extent satirizing society. She seeks to question why we are so relentlessly positive, even when that positivity is unwarranted, and to get us to see what the true cost is when we are too accepting and nowhere near critical enough. It you set aside your preconceived notions about positivity and positivism you might just find this a richly rewarding book!
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5.0 out of 5 stars an important book, October 15, 2009
By Christopher Locke (Boulder, CO USA)

This review is from: Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (Audio CD)
Ehrenreich makes the point (and it can't be made too often) that the Law of Attraction, as promulgated via such works of irrationalist pseudoscience as The Secret and the books of Esther and Jerry Hicks, has the down-side effect of making out-of-work, poor, sick, and otherwise "unlucky" people responsible for their own condition. She tells how Rhonda Byrne (The Secret) opined that tsunami victims had attracted their own misfortune. Ehrenreich also spells out how convenient this "philosophy" is to the greed heads that have lately been so busy raping America and the global economy. Don't revolt, don't complain, it's all your own fault.

She covers how Emerson and the Transcendentalists attempted to break free from the toxic effects of Calvinism on early American life, but how that attempt got sidetracked into New Thought (Phineas Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy, etc), with its increasingly laser-like focus on "prosperity" and get-rich-quick schemes. The scholarship that went into this intellectual/cultural history is impressive. Closer to present time, she unpacks how many evangelical mega-churches have leveraged this new, and very un-Christian, gospel in the style of huckster marketeers and predatory CEOs. But my favorite is the number she does on Martin Seligman and his "Positive Psychology" boondoggle. This isn't just a good book, it's an important one and much needed. I hope it will shape attitudes and change minds.

[Maeve]

33. "Bright-sided" by Barbara Ehrenreich

"How relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America" Great book!!!

[GoCubsGo]

37. Amen!

Just this week alone, I had at least two people say to me, "If we just keep thinking positively, all those 'good vibes' will finally bring something good to us." Riiiiiight. I had to reply that I have been thinking positively since my rotten situation began going on three years ago. The only thing it has done for me is make the disappointment even deeper each time that light at the end of the tunnel disappears.

My attitude about the whole thing: The glass is not half empty. It's not half full. It's half a glass.

[agent46]

48. Positive thinking and thought stopping

Cults like the ones described in this thread use dogma and the practice of self-policing to ensure their followers truncate their own critical thinking processes. The cult leaders and down-line marketers instill fear of unpleasant "karmic" repercussions for "bad" thoughts.

Spend a few years stopping thought and nipping it in the bud like that - then see what's left of your independence. Such people, while believing they are a special breed, become as malleable and easily manipulated as children. The beauty of it for the authoritarians who promote these types of movements is they can anchor the psychological results of habitual thought stopping to the belief that one has become more pure, more free and "nearer my God to Thee."

Add to that the belief that internalizing the program will allow even the poorest follower the dream of acquiring wealth as a result of their increased alignment with God's plan. You've built yourself a happy little army of true consumer-believer hybrids who (surprise!) tend to favor the boot-strap free-market religion of the corporatists. It's all very nice for the owners.

Problem is there's a backlash in the end.

[Robb]

49. Meh. All things in moderation. I've got a pet theory.

Our innate survival mechanisms haven't kept pace with our cultural evolution. We've got "fight or flight" burned into our brains for very good reasons, what I like to call the "Oh shit, TIGER!" response, but it's not useful any more.

At one point, it because quite important that we were able to recall so vividly the events of the last time a tiger came through -- the bloodied bodies of our family, for example -- to where all we had to do to bring up the "Oh shit, TIGER!" response was to see the tiger, before it started mauling people. So we would run or fight or whatever with full vigor, and early -- before things went south. Very important, that ability to go from 0 to 10 in an instant, and all based on memory and the ability to get worked up about it.

However. That response, the "Oh shit, TIGER!" response, is still part of our psyche, but there's fewer and fewer tigers, literally and metaphorically. Events that aren't "tiger-worthy" get elevated to the same level. This is why people can be all worked up on 10 for things that really, when you step back, ain't a tiger. And why that vivid memory that kept us from being eaten can serve up a bad dish from time to time: PTSD springs to mind, but really the ability to remember an event so clearly that the emotional response to it is quite real all over again -- that works for any event that triggered a response.

Our challenge isn't, as you correctly say, to use positive thinking to brighten our day. What really needs to happen is to foster the ability to stop seeing tigers everywhere.

[agent46]

50. As beside the point as your sig line

Fear of real Tigers or Tiger metaphors aren't the issue here at all - and niether is the fear of a Boogey man. The dangers people face now are far more insidious and protean but are as much a matter of survival. You sound quite comfortable where you are though.

[Robb]

51. Perhaps.

...But as bad as losing one's job is, surely you cannot believe it is worse than seeing one's family being mauled by a tiger?

Proportionality is the missing element. DU lately is an exceptional case study, I would add.

[agent46]

52. Proportionality

If you think this has all been about job loss and financial security, then the point has been lost somewhere along the way. This is about historical and cultural trends. And lives are being lost by the thousands here and overseas.

[AllentownJake]

53. Stopping the grieving process

In my theory what this is about. Through grief, I personally believe, we learn our most important lessons in life.

So your company wipes out half of a division because a CEO made some really bad decisions. Instead of grieving about what just happened, people are trained to "look at the new opportunities"

The entire positive thinking notion was developed to get people to be obeyers who don't question leaders.

I can give you plenty examples with current political leadership and past political leadership and the inability of some "true believers" to question actions of said leadership and use such failures as not a time to ask questions and grieve what has happened, but to double down on support.

[Robb]

54. Absolutely.

Looking past the crap right in front of you isn't helpful unless the crap is really gone. If it's not, you've got to go through it to get out the other side.

On the other, I'd suggest the positive thinking business was more aimed at turning a quick buck than any nefarious scheme. Quick-fix feel-goodery is easy to produce and people love it. Like I know eating four cinnamon rolls will make me sick, but I'll do it now and again anyhow because it feels great at the time.

Meanwhile, some bastard still sold me four cinnamon rolls. :D

[AllentownJake]

57. That is very true

Buying into the notion your pain can be deadened or over tomorrow after a loss will result in you finding out the pain is still there.

Judging by the alcohol rate abuse, drug abuse, obesity factor, and people who are adherents to strict religious dogma, there is a lot of pain that never works it way naturally through the system in America.

Like I said, this was a corporate America developed phenomena because grieving workers, are not high producing workers.

[Robb]

60. A uniquely American phenomenon in that way

...Companies that take a long-run approach would surely know that workers that grieve turn into higher-producing workers in the long run. But no one in this country does that any more.

[AllentownJake]

61. Well

Your bonus is determined by the quarter, and while having someone on staff for 30 years is great for the long term, it is a lot easier to pull the plug on someone when they are having problems and replace them with someone else from a competitor that is pissed at their former company or a young kid from college who doesn't know you yet.

The 401(k) and day-trading have worked miracles in American Corporate Culture in making them even more sociopaths than they were originally.

Oh and it has spread to American everyday culture, as we are now a disposable society.

[laughingliberal]

67. We saw a report on a morning show, recently, that the only businesses showing strong economic growth

are bars.

[AllentownJake]

69. Gerald Celente

predicted liquor sales would be through the rough in 2009. It was one of those predictions that was the easiest for him to make.

Economic downturn always equals an increase in intoxicating substance usage. I'm pretty sure Marijuana sales are through the roof as well, though that is an unregulated black market.

[agent46]

63. "Meanwhile, some bastard still sold me four cinnamon rolls."

Yep, you choose your gluttony for sure, but you're implying a false analogy. People without money, influence, or privilege do not choose their wars, their lack of health care, education or living standards. You still seem a little disingenuous.

[laughingliberal]

65. Mauled is mauled

Seeing your family mauled by a tiger is very bad. But, in today's world, seeing your family sleeping on the street and scrounging for food is a pretty bad mauling, too. Situations that threaten survival have changed but they still threaten survival.

[JFN1]

71. "I call it the deny reality movement."

Ummm...Christianity has been around for more than 30 years...unless you meant some other movement intent on denying reality...:evilgrin:

[Odin2005]

72. Read Voltaire's "Candide", this kind of BS is nothing new.

Voltaire's Dr. Pangloss, a satirical personification of Liebniz's "Best of All Possible Worlds" assertion, would fit right into today's "positive thinking" cult.

[Greyhound]

73. Agreed. Hell, remember when companies fired people and a lay-off was just that?

But they rightly discovered that when you tell Americans that 500,000 people were fired, it upsets them and they react unfavorably to your shitty products.

Problems require solutions, solutions mean change and removal of the cause. Challenges can be met with more of the same. It seems our entire psyche has been turned upside-down through this insidious twisting of language.

[jpak]

74. POSITIVE VIBES MUST BE REPLACED WITH DOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!!1111

DOOOOOOMMMM!!!111

DOOOOOOMMMM!!!1111 I TELL YA!!!11..

:rofl:

[Lorien]

82. Magical thinking must be replaced with realistic expectations, hard work and

the acceptance of the fact that sometime bad shit just happens-even to good people. And that's not the "fault" of the victim. "Positive vibes" along won't do a fraction of what positive ACTION will.

[Geek_Girl]

76. I worked for Unum a few years back and they brought in a motivational speaker

To help everyone think in a positive manner, especially about the the company. They called him Mr. Super fantastic or some other such bs. Just about everyone I know has been laid off from that place that has worked there. Management worked really hard to keep their employees brainwashed. But didn't work very hard to keep them employed.

[Lorien]

81. AMEN!! It goes even deeper to a "blame the victim" mentality

if a person gets cancer "they must have asked the universe for cancer, or brought it upon themselves with their negative thoughts/ attitude." Same with losing your job, or working incredibly hard an watching as a know nothing corporate toady gets the promotion instead, or failing at damn near anything....everything from car crashes to toothaches can be blamed on "negative thinking" while absolute faith in "the Secret" is touted as the miracle cure all. Oops-you believe in "the Secret" but your life is still a disaster? Then you don't have enough faith!

I've known true believers. I feel down a staircase last year and fractured an ankle. Right after I returned from the hospital a young woman that I barely knew came up to me and said "do you know why this happened?" I said "Yes; I was trotting down an indoor slate staircase and some of the steps were covered in water because there was a rainstorm outside, but no doormats to keep the water out. I slipped." "No." she said with confidence "you know the REAL reason; it was the negativity that you sent out into the universe. You asked to break your ankle, and the universe gave you your wish. If you change your attitude you can change your life!" I wanted to throw HER down that staircase at that point. What a horrible thing to say to someone right after they spent an agonizing two hours in the ER! Another positive thinking true believer that I knew cleaned out a closet and every other drawer in her home and just waited, because her "positive thoughts" would soon bring the perfect man to her. By making room for him in her home she displayed her absolute faith (she's still single 12 years later). That positive thinking bullshit ruins lives and relationships while allowing corporations to treat their employees like crap. And all the while the employees blame themselves for their circumstances.

[glowing]

85. Actually, its is time to really discuss what every person on this planet deserves.

How do we all share and make sure everyone has food, shelter, clean water, clean environment, and access to health care? What is a need and what is a want? What do we as humans get to expect when we are pushed out of our mother's wombs? Will it be a short life full of disease, malnutrition, and hoplessness... Will it be a world of insane privellege? What can we make it? Defining how we wish to see humanity would help us to know what emotion to feel when subjected with change. It is nearly impossible to be poor in the USA. We send money to the starving children in Africa, but neglect the very same starving children here.... We actually make laws against being homeless in many parts of the country. Throwing up a shack on an empty lot.. will result in fines and jail time.

Its time to have this conversation about our basic idea of humanity and what every person on this planet deserves fairly. AND what the "extras" are and what they should cost.

[The Midway Rebel]

87. If there is one cultural casualty of this recession I would like to see it is...

those baggy-ass low ride jeans.