In reviewing the new book Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
Promoting the idea that happiness is within your grasp is in the interests of corporations trying to bamboozle an overworked and underpaid workforce. It’s also favoured by churches trying to get rich quick off the American dream. Ehrenreich traces the fad from Calvinist self-control through Christian Science to blatant assumptions of the holiness of cash. Informing the uneducated and unmedicated that their plight is all their own fault is followed up by instructions for making anything you desire – from a new TV screen to a trip to Mexico – “materialise” through mind control. The censorship of negative opinion combines perfectly with the American policy of each man for himself in the best of all possible worlds.
This is the philosophy that gave us the smart bomb, the space programme, sub-prime mortgages, plenty of psychopaths and Sarah Palin. Every dumb American idea we’ve all had to stomach and die for can be attributed to this devotion to fantasy and self-satisfaction. Ehrenreich writes that America is unsurpassed in one area: “the reflexive capacity for dismissing disturbing news”. Current American euphemisms for getting fired include “releases of resources”, “career-change opportunities” and “growth experience”.
Danny is a credentialed social science teacher in California, but is especially interested in students with special education (always the person first and the disability second). He is pursuing his education specialist credential at Cal State Northridge with help from President Obama who has given lots of money to teachers in residency willing to work for three years in Title 1 Schools. Please know that his thoughts are always forming and are subject to change at a moment's notice.