Did Positive Thinking Wreck the Economy? - Barbara Ehrenreich

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/10/24/Bright-Sided_Barbara_Ehrenreich

Journalist and author Barbara Ehrenreich criticizes the "delusional" positivity that she believes has permeated American culture. She suggests that so-called "negative" realists are persecuted for their attitudes, particularly in business.

-----

Barbara Ehrenreich presents a sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism.

Americans are a "positive" people -- cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.

In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to "prosper" you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness."

Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes -- like mortgage defaults -- contributed directly to the current economic crisis. - Commonwealth Club of California

Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of thirteen books, including the New York Times bestseller Nickel and Dimed. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Harpers, and the Progressive, she is a contributing writer to Time magazine. She lives in Florida.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• optimism
• pessimism
• god
• faith
• religion
• outlook
• bear
• bull
• economy
• finance
• business
• wall
• street
• markets
• economics
• cynical
• cynicism
• skeptical
• skeptics
• realist
• fora.tv
• foratv
• fora
• tv
• barbara
• ehrenreich
• commonwealth
• club

[freedomgonzo]

@nakedhand She is suggesting that we should be realistic, not blindly optimistic? What's totally wrong with that.

[hoodmilk]

She's a genius.

[RVJEDI]

Her parents never bought her a pony

[thethirdq]

What ever you used worked out great for the vid! Keep them coming!

[sendarine]

Her point is valid, insofar as analysis of existing states is concerned, one needs to be 'realistic' and 'factual' about what's happening but the same cannot be applied to future events because its facts are NOT known. An argument can easily be made that if we take "positive thinking" out of the equation, we take the human ability to leapfrog, in the long run we take out creativity. On a personal note, there is NOTHING wrong with pink bears.

[GzLessonz]

Ignor faults? Lol na.. they just get away with shit bc on top of thinking optimistically which is good we have Bankers who are just and always have been corrupt.. thats he realistic pov. Ppl get confused w positive thinking and lol cults i guess now bc they look at everything black and white. You can say u dont but ur actions speak otherwise. Positive=real. Bc really we all know we can do anything if we want. Its all how you choose to approach. ACTION.

[GzLessonz]

Hmm.. shes coming from a pretty negative perspective lol..what a moron.

[clokwize]

"Have a nice day!" "what if I dont feel like having a nice day!" - George Carlin

[sai18kit]

the positive thinking is probably one of the extreme belief that the bankers support from behind, so people would ignore their faults and corruptions when they are so positive.

[Paseosinperro]

"The secret" sucks !!

[macintosh311]

no it didn't it was many scoundrels