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Barbara Ehrenreich’s study of American optimism at its most delusional is fascinating, often very funny, and wholly convincing... [America is] a babbling neurotic on the couch, popping pills and whining about its self-esteem. What went wrong?

Ehrenreich’s antidote is the time-honoured wisdom of “realism, to the point of defensive pessimism”. Studies show that a certain level of buoyancy is synonymous with good mental health, for sure; but this means more “existential courage”, she says, than “positive thinking”. And a long, hard stare into the face of truth can be distinctly bracing, like a cold shower, a good black joke, or one of Churchill’s speeches from 1940 promising nothing but blood, toil, tears and sweat. This was hardly accentuating the positive. But it worked.

Americans, in order to have a nice day, every day, have to consume two-thirds of the world’s antidepressants, along with all those burgers and that horrible “cheese”. And as well as gobbling Prozac, they have to lie to themselves a great deal. Life coaches counsel them to look in the mirror every morning and “make affirmations” such as “I am successful! I am beautiful! I love myself!” ...

More valuable still is health... She even heard fellow sufferers claim to love their cancer. “If I had to do it over, would I want breast cancer? Absolutely,” said one. “I am happier now than I have ever been in my life,” said another. To Ehrenreich, this was accentuating the positive to the point of insanity....

... Another pseudo-religion is the “prosperity gospel”: God wants you to be rich. .. Meanwhile, leading CEOs were going on shamanic healing journeys. “In a candlelit room thick with a haze of incense, 17 blindfolded captains of industry lay on towels, breathed deeply, and delved into the ‘lower world’ to the sound of a lone tribal drum.” Their guru was an urban shaman who had been to Harvard Business School, purveying a wisdom that was the bastard offspring of management-speak and hippie-think.

“American corporate culture had long ago abandoned the dreary rationality of professional management for the emotional thrills of mysticism, charisma and sudden intuitions,” explains Ehrenreich. Joe Gregory, former president of Lehman Brothers, was proud to describe himself as a “Feeler”. Often he’d do the exact opposite of what the analysts advised, on a “hunch”. “Anyone who voiced negativity was thrown out,” recalls one (non-Lehman) analyst, Steve Eisman.

... “Within the United States, any talk of intractable problems like poverty could be dismissed as a denial of America’s greatness.”

America is uniquely blessed by God. How can it possibly fail? But just as an unpleasantly boastful individual is often hiding deep insecurity, so is America....

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Every time you smile, I am reminded that in some cultures, the baring of teeth is a sign of aggression...

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Originally posted by rue:
Americans are, I think, extremely propagandized. And so, we run on faith b/c we must.

The system works. If you're not seeing the benefits now, just remember, in the long run this will all be for the best. This is just like nature intended. This is the greatest place on earth.

We will do anything, think anything, pretend anything in order to deny failure. Failure of our ideas, failure of our systems, failure of our national ego.

I think the seeds were planted in the 1950's. There was a certain dystopia to our utopia - is that all there is ? THIS is heaven on earth ? That's when valium was king, psychoanalysis got cache, the discontent of the middle class was fodder for authors. Rather than examine the country - hey ! WE won the war, WE are the best, WE are special (and anyone who disagrees is a commie) - we decided that the problem was our indvidual pathologies. Anything else was unthinkable. Or, at least due to the propaganda ministers, unpeakable.

Nothing was wrong with the system.

Throw the Age of Aquarius on top of that and you get a whole nation of magical thinkers. If you just believe hard enough you can fly. And we can ALL be rich.

Viola. Mass craziness.

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Silence is consent.

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Originally posted by Bytemite:


If we feel insecure in regards to other countries, it's because we're paranoid that we might be conquered or overtaken economically. We think it's the worst thing in the world that could happen to us.

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Originally posted by rue:
Americans are, I think, extremely propagandized. And so, we run on faith b/c we must.

The system works. If you're not seeing the benefits now, just remember, in the long run this will all be for the best. This is just like nature intended. This is the greatest place on earth.

We will do anything, think anything, pretend anything in order to deny failure. Failure of our ideas, failure of our systems, failure of our national ego.

I think the seeds were planted in the 1950's. There was a certain dystopia to our utopia - is that all there is ? THIS is heaven on earth ? That's when valium was king, psychoanalysis got cache, the discontent of the middle class was fodder for authors. Rather than examine the country - hey ! WE won the war, WE are the best, WE are special (and anyone who disagrees is a commie) - we decided that the problem was our indvidual pathologies. Anything else was unthinkable. Or, at least due to the propaganda ministers, unpeakable.

Nothing was wrong with the system.

Throw the Age of Aquarius on top of that and you get a whole nation of magical thinkers. If you just believe hard enough you can fly. And we can ALL be rich.

Viola. Mass craziness.

***************************************************************

Silence is consent.

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