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Barbara Ehrenreich scrutinizes America’s obsession with positive thinking

By Vick Mickunas, Contributing Writer Updated 4:16 PM Friday, November 13, 2009

Q Your latest book explores themes that you touched upon in the books “Nickel and Dimed” and “Bait and Switch.”

A “There certainly is a connection. During that research I kept running into positive thinking ideology that was being applied or imposed upon people who had just lost their jobs. So that got me interested.”

Q. Nine years ago, you were dealing with breast cancer. How did the culture that has arisen around breast cancer lead to this book?

A. “I was horrified to be diagnosed with breast cancer and then to be reaching out for support and find all this pink ribbon kitsch and the constant advice that I have to be positive or it wouldn’t get better. That I had to be positive to the point of actually thinking the disease was a good thing that was happening to me.”

“I lost all patience, This all infuriated me. After I finished the treatments and was declared good to go, I sort of put it out of my mind. But then when I began to encounter the same kind of message being given to people who suffered other kinds of misfortunes like layoffs, then it all began to connect up in my mind that there’s something really going on in American culture.”

“When we experience bad things where we are told: ‘don’t be a whiner — do not be a complainer — you don’t want to be a victim, do you?’ Well, maybe you are a victim; a victim of unemployment, a victim of cancer. And maybe you should complain.”

I was consumed by the question; what causes breast cancer? Here we have an epidemic. We don’t know what causes it? I was also consumed by the question; why are the treatments so barbaric? And so destructive to the human body? It came to me: it is time to be asking questions — not being silent.”

Q. In “Bright-Sided,” you scrutinize our American obsession with positive thinking.

A. ‘The gurus of positive thinking will tell you that you should not read the newspapers or listen to the news because that’s going to be negative, too. And why have negative stuff in your life?”

Q. George W. Bush re-surfaced recently as a motivational speaker. Thoughts?

A. “It’s perfect for him. He had been a cheerleader in college. I think he understood the presidency to be a continuation of that role. He stated more or less that his job is to be ‘optimist-in-chief.’ ”

Q. Can Americans become realistic?

A. “Yes, I don’t think that’s asking too much. Our whole society has been in some kind of state of delusion on a lot of subjects, whether it was the economy, you know, housing prices are always going to get better. Everybody is going to individually get rich and that is why you wouldn’t want to put more of a tax burden on wealthy people, because you’re going to be one of them — like, tomorrow. If you use these techniques.”

“We have been living in a bubble of optimism ,which really has been blocking out reality in order to maintain it.”

Contact book reviewer Vick Mickunas at vick@vickmickunas.com

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