Summarizing
the video:
-She expresses
dismay at 'mandatory optimism', believing it to be a delusion and a mistake. I
agree, negative things need to be confronted with intelligent thinking and
action, not positive thoughts.
-She refutes
the idea that you can somehow control the physical world with your thoughts. For
example making things that you desire come to you, such as money and fame - being
happy cannot remake the world. An example used is the self-help book 'The
Secret', which advocates positive thoughts to attract things to you. There is
no concrete scientific evidence behind this
Furthermore
she Links positive thinking to the financial crisis. For example anybody who
expressed caution and explained that house prices couldn't rise for ever was
sacked. Nobody was allowed to think bad thoughts, doubt wasn't tolerated.
This point
is best articulated in Fareed Zakaria's (Journalist) book 'The Post American
World'. He explains how a kind of 'reverse natural selection' occurred on Wall
Street. Every time someone at a financial institution pressed for more leverage
and risk, the following years proved them correct. These people were promoted
and emboldened , gaining control over greater capital. While those who
expressed caution where passed over for promotion and became increasingly
isolated.
-She
believes it is cruel to tell people with immense difficulties in their life
(Poverty or unemployment) that it's all in your head, just change your
attitude.
-Barbara
Ehrenreich advocates 'REALISM'.
The
Secret' by Rhonda Bryne
The premise
of this callous self-help book is that you can get anything you want in life by
thinking positively to attract things to you - wealth, fame and happiness. In
the book, the concept of attracting things to your with positive thoughts is
called the 'Law of Attraction'.
Dr. Jim Taylor (clinical associate
professor of psychology) describes how Rhonda Bryne exploits our greatest human weakness - that is we can get something for nothing,
that we can achieve our goals without blood, sweat or tears.
Alain De
Botton
The equation for happiness is reality minus your expectations. The problem is western societies
foster unrealistic hopes for their citizens. It's the growing divergence
between their aspirations and the reality of life that exacerbates misery and
frustrations.
Ironically, philosopher
'Alain de Botton' says that we'd be a
lot more cheerful if we learnt to be bit more pessimistic.
He argues
that it's the incompatibility between grandeur aspirations and the mean reality of
life which generates severe disappointments.
We must
learn to adjust our expectations to an imperfect world which doesn't always
conform to our desires. We need to reconcile ourselves to the imperfectability
of our existence. Misery, boredom, jealousy, wretchedness etc are all common inevitable
realities of mankind.
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