Chapter 6: American Paradox 513-541 (Brooks and Ehrenreich)
One. How are we a culture of tribes and dichotomies?
We are “red state” or “blue state”; James Brown or Pat Boone; James Joyce or Nancy Drew; elitist or populist; cosmopolitan or tribalist, individualistic or conformist, social responsibility or libertarian, materialistic or spiritual, etc.
Two. What unifying value now dominates America and transcends the oppositions discussed above?
To borrow from Jeremy Rifkin, we are now beholden to “hypercapitalism” in which “values of capitalism overwhelm all other values . . .” For example, the “blue state” ad for Diesel jeans exploits sexuality for profit; the Tea Party wants private rights, that is money, to trump all other social values. So in a way the blue and red states have something in common.
Three. Do the red state and blue state stereotypes in David Brooks’ essay, “One Nation, Slightly Divisible,” seem convincing? Explain.
It’s Walmart and big trucks and ripped sleeves and mullets and Christmas all year round vs. cathedral ceilings, predatory jobs, dry cleaning, gadget geeks, or if they have liberal arts jobs these blue state people drive little cars and show passive-aggressive hostility for gas guzzlers and sanctimonious bumper stickers.
He concludes, though, that we are not a divided nation; we are a cafeteria nation, meaning we are nation of cliques, niche groups, little clubs.
Barbara Ehrenreich, “Bright-Sided” (534)
One. How are the ideas of happiness and “positive thinking” a fraud?
What Happiness Is Not
1. Gloating
2. Vindication
3. Hedonism
4. Spite (the best revenge is happiness)
5. Schadenfreude, taking pleasure in the failure and misery of others
6. Machismo bluster (fist pumping)
7. Dionysian ecstasy
8. Excessive wealth (insulation, paranoia, solipsism, insanity)
9. Self-indulgence
10. Self-contented mediocrity and satisfaction with the status quo
11. Blissful ignorance
12. Intellectual pride, believing you're a genius surrounded by a "confederacy of dunces"
Two. Why is there a disparity between our happiness levels in the United States and our famous, or infamous “positive thinking”?
Because smarminess in the name of positive thinking is shallow and duplicitous. Our ideology of positive thinking, having optimism and trying to focus on positive things is a phony ideology and worse it’s ineffective (535). Real happiness, the author contends, is being hopeful and that we’re not.
The author further points out that positive thinking is a reaction to a bleak situation, a cover, if you will, for feeling anguish, despair, and hopelessness, so that we can conclude the more people are positive in their thinking the more hopeless they are. They positive thinking is a feeble effort to feel the opposite of how they really feel.
The author calls this type of positive thinking “self-deception” and “unwarranted optimism.”
Do not confuse positive thinking with “existential courage,” the ability to move forward with full comprehension of life’s horrors.
Three. What is the history of positive thinking in America?
It started in the 19th century by a group of mountebanks, self-styled gurus, and middle-class women. By the 20th century, it had become mainstream, part of the Christian right, the business world and was incorporated into patriotism and psychology.
An example of positive thinking and nationalism is “We’re the greatest nation on Earth!” This is not positive thinking so much as it is arrogance and hubris (pride), the author contends. This hubris leads to American exceptionalism, the idea that Americans are a special people, chosen by God to be the light of the Earth. We call this state of mind a condition: delusions of grandeur. For example, we are the only industrial society that doesn’t guarantee health care for all its people. Even though are GDP per person is higher than any industrial nation, they don’t let anyone die of treatable diseases; American, in contrast, lets 25,000 people die of treatable diseases every year. In those other countries, one death would be a scandal, but in America, “the greatest nation on Earth presumably, 25,000 people die every year and there is little outcry.
Four. What is the symbiotic relationship between positive thinking and capitalism?
American capitalism evolved from the “grim” and “punitive” type of Calvinist Protestantism that demanded delayed pleasure for hard work and the accumulation of wealth to consumer capitalism, focusing on “the hunger for more” and “the imperative of growth.” Positive thinking is needed to assert “perpetual growth.”
Moreover, positive thinking is an “apology” for the cruel aspects of the market economy. If you fail, it’s because of your shortcomings, not the market economy’s, because the market economy is infallible.
Five. What is reckless optimism?
The stock market and real estate bubbles and invading countries under the “optimism” of our political leaders can be deleterious to our nation.
Six. Review the many meanings of positive thinking.
- False ideology
- Self-deception
- Unwarranted optimism
- Smarmy manipulation
- Arrogance and hubris
- Hypercapitalism
- Recklessness
Great Essay Assignment: Page 541, Reading the Signs, Number 1.
Comments