Irrationally positive

Donald Clark from Donald Clark Plan B reviewed the new book by Barbara Ehrenreich, Smile or Die, in a post entitled Beware of the happy campers. I haven't read the book yet, but it's on my to buy list, as I've always enjoyed Barbara Ehrenreich's columns.

From Amazon:

"This brilliant new book from the author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch explores the tyranny of positive thinking, and offers a history of how it came to be the dominant mode in the USA. Ehrenreich conceived of the book when she became ill with breast cancer, and found herself surrounded by pink ribbons and bunny rabbits and platitudes. She balked at the way her anger and sadness about having the disease were seen as unhealthy and dangerous by health professionals and other sufferers. In her droll and incisive analysis of the cult of cheerfulness, Ehrenreich also ranges across contemporary religion, business and the economy, arguing, for example, that undue optimism and a fear of giving bad news sowed the seeds for the current banking crisis. She argues passionately that the insistence on being cheerful actually leads to a lonely focus inwards, a blaming of oneself for any misfortunes, and thus to political apathy. Rigorous, insightful and bracing as always, and also incredibly funny, "Happy Face" uncovers the dark side of the 'have a nice day' nation."

Back to Donald Clark. He echoed my thoughts in many of my previous posts when he wrote:

"There’s something odd about relentlessly jolly people, a sort of deep sadness. But this is nothing compared to the people who sell ‘happiness’ as a commodity – behind the smile lies a lie and a hefty daily rate. I have an instinctive distrust of motivational speakers, positive psychologists, life coaches, NLP fanatics and other happy-clappy types. Call me old fashioned, but I’m a sucker, not for pessimism, but for realism."

Well said.I agree with him distinguishing "jolly people" from those who sell "happiness" for a living. Even among the latter group, you have those who are sincere and those are charlatans. I would not be so negative about naturally upbeat people, they are great to be around, even if their views sometimes have to be tempered with realism.















The childrens' cartoon series (also enjoyed by many adults, including me), Spongebob Squarepants, has two characters on the two extremes of being positive and being negative. Spongebob and Squidward, to my mind both deliciously dysfunctional.

Some research bearing on the issue: Brain Activity Levels Affect Self-Perception: 'Rose-Colored Glasses' Correlate With Less Frontal Lobe Use