Suggestion: Bright-sided

[革命者]

Hi,

I haven't yet read this book, but the topic touches on one of the primary evils of capitalism, especially late capitalism: blaming the individual/"costumer" for everything that goes wrong as a consequence of his/her actions (which is very postmodern, indeed).

The book exposes the positive thinking movement as the depressing, corrupting accomplices to the success of neoliberalism that they are.

Don't know whether it's in the book, but this positive thinking rubbish has as of late been widely used in education systems to promote obedient workers by training for certain attitudes (though the scientific foundation for this is behaviourism, it is a recent trend in education reform in all Western countries).

If anyone has read it, please post a short review or comment.


Best,

Scotty

[革命者]

http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/brightsided.htm

Has anybody read this book or read any more reviews on it? Is it worth reading?

[rednordman]

I havent read the book but it could be interesting if its about what i think it is.
I see what you are saying but positive thinking doesnt really have anything to do with capitalism so long as you are not silly enough to believe it does. Yes, it is definitly used to try and push an individualism agenda, that is for sure, but it is ironically down to the individual to use the positivity to suit a collective goal rather than their own selfish interests.

[革命者]

I havent read the book but it could be interesting if its about what i think it is.
I see what you are saying but positive thinking doesnt really have anything to do with capitalism so long as you are not silly enough to believe it does. Yes, it is definitly used to try and push an individualism agenda, that is for sure, but it is ironically down to the individual to use the positivity to suit a collective goal rather than their own selfish interests.Yes, I can see it's not in itself harmful to have a positive attitude, but it is clearly used to make people into self-blaming individuals, while much of what keeps them down has to do with the lack of chances they have competing with capitalists, who clearly have more chances in life because they can avoid risks with their higher standard of living. They have to chance to accumulate capital by investments others can't do, despite their positive attitude. The people thinking that a positive attitude is all it takes are clearly, and deliberately, misinformed.

It thereby hides capitalism's inherent flaws from people's consciousness. That's why the author speaks of this promotion of positivism having a symbiosis with capitalism.

[MarxSchmarx]

There's a very engaging interview of the author of the book here:
http://uprising.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=546320#
Where Ehrenreich explains how she went about researching and preparing this book.

[革命者]

There's a very engaging interview of the author of the book here:
http://uprising.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=546320#
Where Ehrenreich explains how she went about researching and preparing this book.Great. Thank you!