The Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

[GliderGuider]

Barbara Ehrenreich: The Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

When Barbara Ehrenreich went to be treated for breast cancer, she was exhorted to think positively; and when she expressed feelings of fear and anger, she was chided for being negative.

Ehrenreich, the author of 16 books, including Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, which examine the blue- and white-collar job markets, took on what she sees as an epidemic of positive thinking in her new book: Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.

Positive thinking is different, she says, from being cheerful or good-natured -- it's believing that the world is shaped by our wants and desires and that by focusing on the good, the bad ceases to exist.

Ehrenreich believes this has permeated our culture and that the refusal to acknowledge that bad things could happen is in some way responsible for the current financial crisis.

In her new book, Ehrenreich examines how the positive-thinking movement was started by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, and an amateur metaphysician named Phineas Parkhurst Quimby in response to Calvinism; how being positive became mandatory in corporate culture; and how she thinks prosperity preachers, such as Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church in Houston encouraged a culture of debt by telling their congregations that God wants them to have a big house and a nice car.

While Ehrenreich mainly tackles the financial crisis, I see the same epidemic of relentless optimism crowding out realistic assessments in all the crisis areas of our global situation, from energy and ecology, to issues of social complexity and overpopulation. With some notable, mostly scientific, exceptions a general unwillingness to confront even moderately unpleasant realities has kept us from developing the personal, political and cultural will required to take action with the urgency that is so manifestly required as the crisis we're in accelerates out of our control.

[TwilightGardener]

1. I take the opposite approach, and it's always worked for me--

allow dark, sad, frightening thoughts their time in my brain, until I get tired of obsessing over them and they've lost some of their power--and most of the time, your situation ends up not as bad as you worried it would be. But not everything is going to turn out OK, and you deal with that. You'd think all grownups learn this at some point.

[GliderGuider]

2. You hit a key point

"You'd think all grownups learn this at some point."

I suspect that most people in our society have never developed an inner adult, because it's so rarely modelled in this culture. In Transactional Analysis terms we develop the Child and the Parent (aka the Id and the Superego) very easily but we're taught much less about what it means to be an Adult, which is essentially the state of having a healthy, non-judgmental Ego. So we're stuck with acting out of the judgmental Parent or the self-absorbed Child states, with very few true grownups in evidence.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. That is the responsible outlook - hope for the best

but prepare for the worst.

There is no such thing as magic, and thinking that your thinking affects the physical universe which is outside your control is the essence of magical thinking.

It's the same mindset as 'there is no such thing as coincidence'. OF COURSE there is such a thing as coincidence - that's why there is a word for it. I have little doubt, there is someone online somewhere right now, typing 'there is no such thing as coincidence' to explain something that happened to them - it is merely coincidence that at the same time I am saying 'shit happens'. Things don't happen for a reason - we create reasons after they happened.

'There is no such thing as coincidence' come from the same school of thought as the power of positive thinking. Magical thinking.

I will grant, a positive attitude helps in dealing with problems, but you have to acknowledge the problem in the first place. Also, positive thinking helps with healing yourself from physical and emotional illness and injury. But all your positive thinking in the world is not going to help the OTHER guy.

I used to call it 'positive pessimism'. Now I tend to think of it as 'pragmatic optimism'; the pragmatic approach to optimizing a situation. Of course, the first step is to understand that there IS a situation.

[GliderGuider]

5. An interesting thing about magical thinking

There's a new-age spiritual idea that this shared reality of ours is a consensual co-creation of all life-forms experiencing it (i.e. we all worked together at some "other" level" to create it this way on purpose). Such an idea is untestable, of course, and although it forms the underpinning of all the "Law of Attraction" type magical thinking it isn't terribly well accepted by the scientific community :-)

However, there's a potentially positive aspect to such a belief system. If it's combined with a realistic understanding of the material situation as it is, this philosophy may encourage people to act to make things better. After all, if one feels that they were involved personally in creating this situation, and believes that their beliefs make a difference to how things unfold, and they don't like they way things are unfolding, then they may be inclined to shift their beliefs (and therefore their actions) in a positive direction. They may also be less inclined to lose hope than someone who is a pure materialist if the situation looks irredeemable in some ways.

Now, that only holds if they are first willing to look clearly at the way things actually are. Without that, it doesn't matter if you believe in a conscious universe, the Law of Attraction or the divinity of Rene Descartes -- you can't address a problem you don't perceive correctly.

[madokie]

13. Expect the worst and never be disappointed

is my preferred way of seeing things too.

[kristopher]

4. Interesting post

As seen in my sig line, I encourage positive thinking. I had no idea there was a cult that had developed around what is actually nothing more than either a 1) a productive mindset when approaching a mundane problem, or 2) a basic approach to pulling yourself back from the brink of despair in trying times. However, I googled it and I agree with the OP that there are some whacked out people who have latched onto this as yet another cure-all - sort of like the manic yang to a doomers depressive yin. Here is the first paragraph from a website preaching this religion:

The Power of Positive Thinking
by Remez Sasson

Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind thoughts, words and images that are conductive to growth, expansion and success. It is a mental attitude that expects good and favorable results. A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds.

Not everyone accepts or believes in positive thinking. Some consider the subject as just nonsense, and others scoff at people who believe and accept it. Among the people who accept it, not many know how to use it effectively to get results. Yet, it seems that many are becoming attracted to this subject, as evidenced by the many books, lectures and courses about it. This is a subject that is gaining popularity. http://www.successconsciousness.com/index_000009.htm

Then there is this comment on the article from the link at the OP. It articulates what I think MOST people mean when they speak of positive thinking. It is an accurate representation of an attitude I was exposed to (and strongly influenced by) while living in Japan.

I coud not disagree more
Posted by: khaleesi on Oct 10, 2009 3:49 AM

I truly believe in thinking positively no matter what the situation. The reason being twofold-
First, regardless of what happens being negative never makes anything better. Does it help to get upset when you wreck your car? No, it just makes you feel terrible. You just have to deal with the problem, and if you can control yourself and stay positive the situation is alot more pleasant. You can apply this to any event in your life. Second, everything in life- the good and the bad- is an experience. Once you can get past the idea of JUDGING an experience and you can apprecaite the experience as an experience you will be enlightened. This mentality that we must be angry to get things done or change the world is typical for the Judeo-Christian society that seeks to always think of life in its present form as less than perfect. That is why they aim to go to 'heaven'. This mindset unfortunately has tainted all of American society. For everyone who does not agree with me- forget Oprah and Dr. Phil- go read a book. It is called The Art of Happiness and it is written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I have compassion for all of those who are trapped in a negative state of mind. I hope your lives will be happy after reading this book.

[IrateCitizen]

14. I very much like the second comment in your post

At its heart, however, is not necessarily the idea of "positive thinking" that Ehrenreich is disparaging. Rather, it is a living in the moment and accepting each and every situation as it is, then thinking in terms of the positive when dealing with it.

The present "positive thinking industry" is much more in tune with charlatans such as Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar -- that by simply wishing (and/or praying) for good things to happen to you, they will. The flip side of this is that if bad things happen to you, it is attributable to your attitude and not circumstances that may be out of your direct control. While this viewpoint may not be the majority one of "positive thinking" of those who frequent this board, I can almost guarantee you that it IS the version of positive thinking held by a lot of people in the general population.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. She was on the Daily Show the other evening

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-14-2009/barbara-ehrenreich

[tinrobot]

7. The neutral mind is where it's at....

[GliderGuider]

8. The Buddhists call it non-attachment

I prefer to think of it as non-attachment to outcomes. Feel passionate about the situation and give it everything you've got, but don't be attached to any particular expectation of how it will ultimately turn out.

[tinrobot]

10. Arthur Fonzarelli calls it "being cool"

Joking aside, it's the same thing - you don't get attached to outcome, and you stay in the moment. That way, you remain calm and unruffled (or "cool") and you can act with a clear mind.

[jpak]

9. Some things in life are bad

They can really make you mad
Other things just make you swear and curse.
When you're chewing on life's gristle
Don't grumble, give a whistle
And this'll help things turn out for the best...

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Don't be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing.

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

For life is quite absurd
And death's the final word
You must always face the curtain with a bow.
Forget about your sin - give the audience a grin
Enjoy it - it's your last chance anyhow.

So always look on the bright side of death
Just before you draw your terminal breath

Life's a piece of shit
When you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true.
You'll see it's all a show
Keep 'em laughing as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you.

And always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the right side of life...
(Come on guys, cheer up!)
Always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the bright side of life...
(Worse things happen at sea, you know.)
Always look on the bright side of life...
(I mean - what have you got to lose?)
(You know, you come from nothing - you're going back to nothing.
What have you lost? Nothing!)
Always look on the right side of life..

[conscious evolution]

11. Lt. Murphy got it right

If something can go wrong it will.Usually at the worst possible moment.

Just ask Captian Sullenberger.

[IrateCitizen]

12. JH Kunstler calls it the "Jiminy Cricket syndrome"

As in, "If you wish upon a star, all your dreams will come true." I think that's my favorite incarnation of the phenomenon you mention in this post.

We've reached a point in our society at which telling the truth and acknowledging reality are considered "pessimism". I like to call it preparedness. Acknowledging unpleasant realities -- such as fossil fuel depletion, habitat destruction, mass extinction, climate change, overpopulation and the like -- is not subscribing to doom-and-gloom, IMHO. It is simply trying to best assess the predicaments we are in, which should be the first step toward adopting a viable way forward.