Positive thinking is an ideology.

I'm finally reading Bright-sided : how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich, a book about the problems with "positive thinking". I mentioned it in a blog post a few months ago.

I mentioned how corporations love use "positive thinking" to brainwash employees into thinking that downsizing and not getting pay raises is their own fault for having a poor attitude.

"Think of it as a massive experiment in mind control. 'Reality sucks,' a computer scientist with a master's degree who can find only short-term, benefit-free contract jobs told me. But you can't change reality... For now, you can only change your perception of reality, from negative and bitter to positive and accepting." p. 116

She describes the fundamental problem with positive thinking. If things are truly getting better, if the arc of things is going in a positive direction, why is positive thinking such a hard thing to do? Why do we have to "avoid negative people" and spend millions on books that urge us to say affirmations and brainwash ourselves?

"Why should half the world's population live in circumstances of relative squalor when it has been demonstrated that the principles of the market and free enterprise can lead to sustained economic development?" p. 168

She describes the beginnings of the Positive Thinking movement or "New Thought", often citing Norman Poole and Dale Carnegie books which urge you to fake it so that you can manipulate other people.

Popular pastors have now co-oped the positive thinking movement in religion. God now is about giving us stuff. He wants us to be rich. Ask him and you will receive.

She talks about "the law of attraction" and all the pseudo-science surrounding the far-fetched ideas about how our minds influence the universe, or how being happy helps you fight diseases like cancer.

The book ends with her ideas about how positive thinking ruined the economy because it made people take reckless risks like buying houses they can't afford since"the universe will manifest money and success for me".

She basically concludes that positive thinking is about denying reality. It's an ideology.

One of my favourite stories in the book is about a no-nonsense public relations guy who helps corporations deal with crises. He says that positive thinking just plain doesn't work in his industry. But corporations don't want to hear it.

When called in by companies to deal with a crisis, he starts by telling them 'I'm going to tell you something you're not going to like: ' A crisis is not an opportunity." p. 185

The self-help industry is a way to brain wash people.

A few days ago I wrote a blog post in which I proved that the self-help industry is useless. (Essentially I said if it worked, there wouldn't be any need for an industry.)

Yesterday I ordered Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich from the library. Apparently she argues that the "positive thinking movement" is a way that rich, wealthy, powerful people brainwash us.

I had never thought about it that way. If we're constantly told to stay positive and look at the bright side of things, then when we're let down or fired or abused or taken advantage of, we're not allowed to be upset.

It's the perfect scam! A corporation lays off all it's employees and says, "Don't worry, we're hiring a motivational speaker!"

The company says, "You have to stay positive! Things are going great for you! Look at the bright side!"

Positive thinking is hardly every questioned in our culture. It's just assumed that you should be doing it and you should be doing a lot of it.

If we are taught that "it's all in our mind, everything happens for a reason, you control your destiny, look on the bright side", we're taught to accept negativity and abuse.

Maybe people need to be pessimistic and angry. Maybe that will change things.