Title: Learnership™ 2009, The Re-Invigorating of America through Total Learning, Knowing, and Leading as a Mindful Way-of-Being
Review by: Dr. Michael Stankosky, Director, The George Washington University Institute for Knowledge and Innovation.
Comments: "Powerful – a tour de force on the convergence of learning, collaboration, and leadership; well-suited for addressing the complexities of developing and leveraging knowledge"
Title: Brightsided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America by Barbara Ehrenreich Review by: Chris Borkoski, ALF Director
Comments: After stumbling onto a short book review in the Sunday Washington Post - Book World, November 15, 2009, titled, “The downside of cheering up,” by Kate Tuttle, I curiously purchased the referenced book by Barbara Ehrenreich, titled, Bright-Sided, How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has UNDERMINED America. I expected this book to be a rational and interesting perspective, but I also expected to find 'weak substance' in the author's argument. My expectations were wrong and I was amply impressed by the depth of Ehrenreich's case study and the expert-level presentation of her case.
For example, an early posit is that “Americans have never known suffering,” and that the resulting positive attitude is “en grained in our national character.” Not that positive thinking in itself is bad, but the overuse and abuse of this state of positive-being has many negative consequences. This argument is supported “when economists begin to use happiness rather than just the gross national product as a measure of an economy's success” and again justified with the argument that when “Americans account for two-thirds of the global market for anti-depressants” it would not be likely for the U.S. to tally high in various world-wide evaluations as generally being a happy people.” Ehrenreich reserves an entire chapter on her personal battle with breast cancer and her reference to this overly-supporting environment where there is a total lack of tolerance for cancer patients that do not accept their health condition with a positive, if not a gift-like attitude.
Further exhortations add that “because we do not fully believe that things will be better on their own” that we rely on “instructors of positive thinking” – coaches, preachers, and gurus – to assist people with the “deliberate self-deception, including the constant effort to repress or block out unpleasant possibilities and negative thoughts.” Ehrenreich cites that this “promotion of positive thinking has become a minor industry in its own right, producing an endless flow of books...providing employment for tens of thousands of life coaches, executive coaches, and motivational speakers”...and goes on to compare these positive enablers with historical “purveyors of snake oil.” Ehrenreich also states, “for a fee on a par with what a therapist might receive, an unlicensed career or life coach can help you defeat the negative self-talks – that is, pessimistic thoughts– that impedes your progress.”
One of Ehrenreich's best statements were, “the flip side of positivity is thus a harsh insistence on personal responsibility.” In another comparison, Ehrenreich stated that in lieu of ...”improving your life...by upgrading your attitude, or revising your emotional responses....One could think of other possible means of self-improvement – through education...to acquire new hard skills, or by working for social changes that would benefit all.”
The author goes on to state that because “the only thing that these coaches can do is work on your attitude and expectations; so it helps [for them] to start with the metaphysical premise that success is guaranteed through some kind of attitudinal intervention. That way, if success does not follow...its not the coach's fault, its yours. You just didn't try hard enough and obviously need more work.” Ehrenreich continues that the reference to metaphysics in the coaching industry, such as to the Law of Attraction and the Law of Gravity presents many problems even for those whose science education stopped at the ninth grade. For example, “thoughts are not objects with mass; they are patterns of neuronal firing within the brain.” Therefore, “if they exerted some sort of gravity...it would be difficult to take off one's hat.” Furthermore, thoughts are not vibrations...whereas, sound waves are characterized by amplitude and frequency...there is no such thing as positive or negative vibration of thoughts. In the words of Nobel physicist Murray Gell-Mann, this is so much “quantum flatdoodle”...[upon the coaching industry's much reference to quantum physics]...and there is no mind over matter.
Coaches and self-help gurus have struggled for years to find a force that could draw the desired results to the person who desires them. Coaches have long asserted “that your reality is simply determined by whatever frequency [of energy] you chose to dive into, and that we create our reality.” With technical reference, coaches expound to us “on the infinite power we can achieve by resonating in tune with the universe, which it turns out to have a frequency of ten cycles per second.” As a preemptive blow, Ehrenreich states that the first step to recovery is for us to remove ourselves from the mass delusion that is positive thinking.