Can you watch this video without experiencing a knee jerk reaction that all positive thinking... [View all]

[Silent3]

Last edited Sun Dec 1, 2013, 12:23 PM - Edit history (1)

...is being dismissed?

I watched this video when it was posted on Upworthy's Facebook page, thought it was great, thought it said many things that badly need to be said... then sadly read the Facebook comments, amazed at the number of people who totally missed what Barbara Ehrenreich was saying.

So here are a bunch of preliminary disclaimers that shouldn't be necessary, but apparently are -- not because Ehrenreich's communication skills are lacking, but because I'd guess that "positive thinking" is such a sacred cow for so many people that when they think their sacred cow is being attacked, their defensive shields go up, and then plenty of important details of what's actually being said get lost.

1) Barabara Ehrenreich is NOT attacking ALL positive thinking -- just a very real fundamentalist brand of positive thinking that's definitely out there in the world.

2) She's certainly not recommending negativity, and explicitly says that excessive negativity and pessimism are ALSO delusional forms of thinking.

3) She's not confusing "what positive thinking is all about", as if the the fundamentalist form of positive thinking that she's denouncing is the only form that exists.

4) One of the most bizarrely stupid misinterpretations of what's being said in this video is apparently triggered when Ehrenreich criticizes a common pop culture mangling of what quantum mechanics means. A bunch of viewers/listeners somehow walk away from this thinking that the stupid version of QM that Ehrenreich criticized is her own view of what QM really is.

Of course, if you really do believe in a magical thinking version of "positive thinking", if you treat the idea of the "law of attraction" as if it were a proven scientific concept and/or physical law of the universe... well then, yes, go ahead and get upset and defensive, because that's definitely, and rightly, being attacked in this video.