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Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America |  | Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
List Price: $23.00
Buy New: $12.99
as of 11/21/2009 02:14 CST details
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Seller: atexbooks
Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 295
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0805087494
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.232
EAN: 9780805087499
ASIN: 0805087494
Publication Date: October 13, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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. With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 52
Preaching to the Choir November 19, 2009
Keith Otis Edwards (Dearbron, MI United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Considering that you are reading this, it's obvious that you love books. Why do you love them? I certainly can't speak for you, but as for myself, I love books because they are an escape. Ah, that's an ugly word, so instead I'll use the word refuge. Human society is a dismal affair which always leaves one disappointed and disillusioned, but even a mediocre author like Dan Brown can create a world that is far more agreeable than the one we must live in. But it's not just escapist fiction that makes the world inside a book preferable. No matter how many times I've read it, Barbara Tuchman's account of Zola's declaration "J'ACCUSE!" makes me feel good, because that's humanity at it's finest.
So why would anyone want to read Mrs. Ehrenreich's litany of the baseness of America and the addled way it thinks? You already know everything contained within the covers of this book. Walk out your door, and you're confronted with it. Or stay at home and turn on the radio; almost all of the stations on the AM dial are devoted to either Christianity debased to its lowest form or demagogues indoctrinating the masses to support what is patently not in their best interest. Instead of agreeable titillation, television is devoted to lewdness, except of course for the numerous channels devoted to yet more preachers, including the motivational speakers your local PBS station broadcasts during their fortnightly pledge weeks.
Yes, books are the only refuge from this ordure, but Mrs. Ehrenreich instead rubs your nose in it. Since you are unavoidably confronted with examples of her topic every day, why have her tell you what you already know? There are flagellants among the liberals who posit that it's important to keep all this in mind, because it's reality, but I am well aware of the irrational nature of America, and so are you. Is reading about it once again somehow good for you?
More important, will this book's stating the obvious over and over change anyone's outlook? I would wager against all comers that 99.8% of the readers of "Bright-Sided" are already of a cynical kidney (you don't seriously accept that the reviewers who gave it one star actually read the book, do you?), and that by writing it, Mrs. Ehrenreich has changed not one mind. Not one worshiper has laid down her rosary, nor has one devotee decided not to mail-in a love offering, nor by reading this book has one corporate peon gained the courage to stand up at an assembly and shout hoots of derision at the motivational speaker. Americans typically lack rational judgment, and that's a congenital defect to which there is no remedy. This book and a hundred like it will have absolutely no effect on anyone's behavior, and the pink teddy-bears will continue to be held as a talisman against cancer remission. Yellow ribbons will continue to be tied around trees and utility poles.
I further maintain that the only reason anyone has read this book is so that she can say to herself, Hey! Yeah! That's just what I think! Good for me! And that is the very worst reason for reading a book.
The chapter in which Mrs. Ehrenreich tells of her bout with cancer is somewhat touching, and she is to be applauded for her courage, but admit it -- you already knew that the televangelists were clownishly deluded, that Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie were full of hooey, that the corporate barons were maniacs of the most despicable order. You have already read more-detailed accounts of the shenanigans which caused the ongoing financial meltdown. You were already familiar with that rare bit of American wisdom: "Wish in one hand and poop in the other, and see which hand fills-up the quickest."
I suppose that you could carry this book around as a sort of breviary, as a means to maintain what sanity is possible in this society, but instead, why not read something really great? "Candide" for example.
 Feeling More Hopeful After Reading November 18, 2009
mcryan
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
One great by product of a book like this is that it actually may bring a great deal of relief to the reader to realize that they don't need to constantly put on a phony air of pollyannaism if it goes against their grain or just feels wrong. Or maybe it's a relief to realize hey, maybe the world really doesn't revolve around me and my thoughts really don't control as much as I have been led to believe. The notion that someone who gets sick, did so because they somehow brought it upon themselves is the most hurtful, kick-me-when- I'm down, ridiculous garbage I have ever heard of. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. I actually felt more positive and less depressed after reading her book than I ever did after reading The Secret or watching an episode of Oprah or wondering how someone like Seligman can appear such a miserable grouch and still be called the Father of Positive Psychology?
From my understanding, Ehrenreich is not at all against being positive, sending out well-wishes, looking at the glass as half-full or whatever you want to call it although I can understand how her tone and spirit in which she wrote the book might come across that way to some. I did get the sense that anger and a general sense of being sick to death of the disservice of the positivist movement were two of the driving forces in this book. Who could blame her for having gone through what she has? Her writing it may have also served as a wake-up call to those who might be taking the message of a book like The Secret a little to far and then falling to pieces when they realize that simply wishing and desiring something, doesn't necessarily mean that you will ever receive it even if you really really really believe it. It's intersting how the whole movement has pat, c-y-a answers for anything that goes wrong yet takes full credit for any posssible good coincidences that may occur. Her point being that none of this stuff is science-based or quantified in any way nor can it be and that is the only fact.
If a person is going to spend the time reading The Secret or another book of its kind then they really owe it to themselves to read a book like Ehrenreich's to get both sides and hone those 360 degree thinking skills.
Whether you're a fan or not of this book or of Ehrenreich herself, she does get us thinking about the flip side of that cheerleader mentality and how even positivism has a negative side.
Ehrenreich is someone who is never going to appeal to everyone but don't let that stop you from reading her book and forming your own opinions. She offers many salient and useful points in spite of whether or not you like her.
Positive Thinking, Or, Class-Conflict by Another Name November 14, 2009
Jon Morris (Binghamton, NY USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is the first book I have read by Ehrenreich, though I have known of her for years and share many of her political proclivities. She is the sort of cultural critic that one will associate with Noam Chomsky or "Alternative Radio." Unfortunately, this book never really rises above its politics, and one cannot help but suspect that Ehrenreich is essentially preaching to the choir.
Ehrenreich's writing style is accessible and witty, and I found myself laughing aloud on several occasions, but this was because I tend to share her views, not because her arguments were particularly well constructed or the information enlightening. Yes: positive thinking is ubiquitous in America. Yes: it has had a deleterious effect on our economy and perhaps on our culture at large. But this much I knew before getting into the book; all the book does is confirm my suspicions, and this is perhaps what makes it suitable for fans, but not for a more general audience.
The most engaging chapter is the third, where Ehrenreich traces the development of positive thinking to the evolution of American religious beliefs. Would that there were more chapters like this! Instead, most of the book sticks to the standard leftist arguments: positive thinking is Conservative vs. Liberal, Religious vs. Secular---with some perfunctory exceptions granted. This is worth noting, of course, but I wish that the book had been more comprehensive.
For example, how can a book on positive thinking not mention the Stoic philosophers of antiquity whose influence was felt not only on Christianity but also upon the Founding Fathers? Stoicism was born of an epoch of crisis and doubt, so why not consider how the cultural context of the Stoics was similar to our own?
While the book is about the way in which Positive Thinking has undermined America in particular, wouldn't a chapter with a cross-cultural perspective highlight the fact? How are trends different in Europe or in Asia? What sets the tone in the European or Asian workplace? What is expected of an entry-level worker or a middle-manager there? It seems to me that a comparison of this sort would at least give the reader a better idea of the degree to which American culture has forsaken reality for the comforting illusion found in positive thinking.
Finally, why is there no chapter on the pernicious effect that positive thinking is having on education, where No Child Left Behind has come to mean that every student can be an Honors student -- all they have to do is wish hard enough or have a teacher that is positive enough to make it (magically) happen for them!? Positive thinking in education has come to mean that every composition gets a gold star, that every artwork will win a prize, and that every student will pass the standardized test with a 90 or above. Woe to the teacher or parent who (negatively) suspects otherwise.
The scourge of positive thinking has infected every facet of American culture but, sadly, Ehrenreich's book neglects or ignores much of this, reducing the phenomenon to yet another example of class conflict. Readers who are sympathetic to Ehrenreich's politics and liberal agenda will find the book an amusing confirmation of what they believe. But I fear that anyone who does not will find little to sway them here. For the more literary-minded I would suggest Eric G. Wilson's Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy; it, too, is a short book that challenges American optimism, but as a manifesto in praise of melancholy, it is (paradoxically) more narrowly focused and richer in ideas.
 Look Below the Surface of Apparent Happiness November 13, 2009
T. Lancaster
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Why does everyone have to be happy all of the time? That's the question asked by Barbara Ehrenreich in her fascinating manuscript, Bright-Sided.
The world has become obsessed with self-help. Businesses spend millions trying to make sure that their workers appear happy. But, is this only creating a surface illusion? Team building exercises, outward bounds weekends and religious obsessives unite. Ehrenreich explores a world where people just aren't allowed to appear to be unhappy and a world where employees who can't keep their emotions in check are often sent to find work elsewhere.
As someone who has never been taken in by the self-help bandwagon, where it is enough to wish hard for health, wealth and prosperity, I found this exploration of the phenomenum absolutely fascinating. Essentially it's presented as a series of essays, each with a documentary styling. There is, occassionally, a little repetition, but this only proves to show the severity of the situation.
Those people who insist on buying every new self-help book as it is released would do well to look at Bright-Sided and reflect on their own life. Sometimes personal satisfaction can perhaps be found purely through will-power, but generally it's the result of hard work and education, and if this book pushes more people down that path then it will be fully worth it.
Becoming Andy Rooney November 12, 2009
Todd Stockslager (Raleigh, NC)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Moderately interesting barely book-length (200 small pages) magazine essay, but a needed antidote to the poison of relentless "positive thinking." Ehrenreich, a cancer "survivor" (her lead chapter will explain the air quotes around that much-used word), didn't classify herself as an optimistic upbeat person before the disease, and certainly doesn't since--not because she is curmudgeonly, cranky, sour, or dour, but because the relentless pursuit of happy is fraudulent, unhelpful and even dangerous.
Ehrenreich traces the ":positive thinking" philosophy through history, medicine, self-help, religion, business, and the economy and finds Americans are not as optimistic as we think, but more optimistic (using optimism here as a rough equivalent to "positive thinking", which it is not) than we ought to be, given the cost of deception to self, society, and the economy.
So far so good, but when Ehrenreich claims in her chapter on the economic meltdown of 2007-2009 that positive thinking contributed to the mess, she's on shaky empirical ground (and to her credit admits it, unlike the positive-thinking psychologists she interviews). And ultimately, Ehrenreich doesn't find a silver bullet to kill off this insidious problem--which is kind of the point, isn't it? "Positive thinking" is a closed system. If you argue against "Positive thinking", why then you're just a negativist who needs to have a change of heart and some cheer to become a positive thinker!
Kind of makes you want to take the Andy Rooney route.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 52
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