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   Today, let’s look at one of the prime methods of baffling the masses.  The power of positive thinking and the credulous ‘Positive Psychology’ that buttresses the fatuous assertions made by the followers of the cult of happiness.  While not a exclusively in the domain in religious, the deluded (religious and otherwise) use ‘positive thinking’ to lie to their flocks and ensconce the cancerous idea that somehow if they just work a little harder and be a little happier wealth, fame and fortune will fall into their laps.

This of course, is bullshit.

Your earning potential in life is determined by a host of factors including where you where born, what your parents do, and their socioeconomic status.  All of these factors have exactly nothing to do with your attitude or work ethic, but figure prominently on the general trajectory your life will follow.  I hypothesize that this is why the cult of Happiness is so pervasive in the US is because it rides shotgun to the other great American Myth that with enough individual hard work you can “make it”.

Both mythologies are meant to distract people from the well worn paradigm of the wealthy plundering society exclusively for their benefit.  Real societal change – that brought on by mass social movements –  is carefully guarded against.  While working at non unionized Wal Mart, being paid less than a living wage and living off of food stamps (that would be the American government subsidizing Walmart btw. Socialism!!1!1!!!), if you just work a little harder and be a little more positive you’ll prosper.  Fixing the systematic problems in society is the furthest idea from your mind as you just manage to scrape by, from day to day.  If the endemic poverty doesn’t silence you, the self-blame and shame will.

The converse is where the truly toxic shit kicks in, if you are somehow(?) not prosperous the problem must be all in *you*.  Not the society around you, not the cultural norms, not the fucking status quo that mandates working poverty for so many Americans – no no no – the problem must be with the individuated, atomized, you.

This is fucking brilliant social engineering, no?  Keeping the common people blaming themselves as opposed to organizing and effecting social change, all the while your class continues to ravage the countries wealth and resources.

Barbra Ehrenreich talks about this phenomena in her book Bright Sided and in the talk that follows starts her explanation of the cult of happiness via her own experiences with breast cancer.  Further into the talk she describes the effects in the workplace and society as a whole.  The book and the talk are well worth your time, faithful readers.   I’ve excerpted the review from the book and the talk from a Harvard Book Store .Enjoy.

From kirkus reviews: 

Ehrenreich’s quarrel is not with feeling upbeat but rather with the “inescapable pseudoscientific flapdoodle” of life coaches and self-improvement products claiming that thinking positively will result in wealth, success and other joyful outcomes. Such magical thinking has become a means of social control in the workplace—where uncheerful employees are ostracized—and prevents action to achieve social change. With life coaches, business motivators and evangelical preachers promoting delusional expectations—“God has a plan” for those who have lost jobs and homes in the current economic crisis, says Christian preacher Joel Osteen—positive thinking can claim partial credit for a major role in such recent disastrous events as the Iraq war and the financial meltdown.

Ehrenreich’s many interviews include meetings with psychologist Martin Seligman, whose “positive psychology,” she finds, offers little credible evidence to make it any different from the wishing-will-make-it-so thinking of writers from Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends & Influence People) to Rhonda Byrne (The Secret). The author’s tough-minded and convincing broadside raises troubling questions about many aspects of contemporary American life, and she provides an antidote to the pervasive culture of cheerfulness—reality-based critical thinking that will encourage people to alter social arrangements in ways that improve their lives.

Positive thinking summarized:

“[…] the new science of positive psychology is founded on a whole series of fallacious arguments; these involve circular reasoning, tautology, failure to clearly define or properly apply terms, the identification of causal relations where none exist, and unjustified generalisation. Instead of demonstrating that positive attitudes explain achievement, success, well-being and happiness, positive psychology merely associates mental health with a particular personality type: a cheerful, outgoing, goal-driven, status-seeking extravert.”