106 / A note to positive thinkers: Think again

I mentioned before the book Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich, how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America (and, I'd like to add, Australia.)

I have finished it now, and I have to say it had a huge impact on me. Over the years I have grown increasingly sceptical of the Think Positive brigade. I had fallen in line more than twenty years ago when I did a weekend course, Born Rich, with Bob Procter, and it had been all down hill from there. To create in my mind a business and a lifestyle just like I wanted it and then manifest it in reality … well, let's just say, it didn't work.

Bright-Sided promotes thinking realistically. "A vigilant realism does not foreclose the pursuit of happiness; in fact it makes it possible. How can we expect to improve our situation without addressing the actual circumstances we find ourselves in? …" Which is exactly what you're meant to do when you use the 'law of attraction' … 'don't get bogged down by your circumstances', instead, 'get inspired by your potential' etc etc. Even if it kills you!

Check out some of my essays; following the book I wrote THINKING and before I had written MONEY and SECRET.

Here is another telling snippet: "… mind does not automatically prevail over matter, and to ignore the role of difficult circumstances - or worse, attribute them to our own thoughts - is to slide toward the kind of depraved smugness Rhonda Byrne (author of The Secret) expressed when confronted with the tsunami of 2006. Citing the law of attraction, she stated that disasters like tsunamis can happen only to people who are on the same frequency as the event."

'Depraved Smugness' … I like it!

One last word from Barbara: "When our children are old enough, and if we can afford to, we send them to college, where despite the recent proliferation of courses on 'happiness' and 'positive psychology,' the point is to acquire the skills not of positive thinking but of critical thinking."

… and, I might add, of clear, rational, non-delusional thinking.

Terrific book, thanks Ms Ehrenreich (translated from German her name means, 'Honor-rich'.)