Posted on Sep 24th, 2008
by 
Julian
New York Times article by Barbara Ehrenreich
September 24, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
The Power of Negative Thinking
By BARBARA EHRENREICH
GREED — and its crafty sibling, speculation — are the designated
culprits for the financial crisis. But another, much admired, habit of
mind should get its share of the blame: the delusional optimism of
mainstream, all-American, positive thinking.
As promoted by Oprah Winfrey, scores of megachurch pastors and an
endless flow of self-help best sellers, the idea is to firmly believe
that you will get what you want, not only because it will make you
feel better to do so, but because “visualizing” something — ardently
and with concentration — actually makes it happen. You will be able to
pay that adjustable-rate mortgage or, at the other end of the
transaction, turn thousands of bad mortgages into giga-profits if only
you believe that you can.
Positive thinking is endemic to American culture — from weight loss
programs to cancer support groups — and in the last two decades it has
put down deep roots in the corporate world as well. Everyone knows
that you won’t get a job paying more than $15 an hour unless you’re a
“positive person,” and no one becomes a chief executive by issuing
warnings of possible disaster.
The tomes in airport bookstores’ business sections warn against
“negativity” and advise the reader to be at all times upbeat,
optimistic, brimming with confidence. It’s a message companies
relentlessly reinforced — treating their white-collar employees to
manic motivational speakers and revival-like motivational events,
while sending the top guys off to exotic locales to get pumped by the
likes of Tony Robbins and other success gurus. Those who failed to get
with the program would be subjected to personal “coaching” or shown
the door.
The once-sober finance industry was not immune. On their Web sites,
motivational speakers proudly list companies like Lehman Brothers and
Merrill Lynch among their clients. What’s more, for those at the very
top of the corporate hierarchy, all this positive thinking must not
have seemed delusional at all. With the rise in executive
compensation, bosses could have almost anything they wanted, just by
expressing the desire. No one was psychologically prepared for hard
times when they hit, because, according to the tenets of positive
thinking, even to think of trouble is to bring it on.
Americans did not start out as deluded optimists. The original ethos,
at least of white Protestant settlers and their descendants, was a
grim Calvinism that offered wealth only through hard work and savings,
and even then made no promises at all. You might work hard and still
fail; you certainly wouldn’t get anywhere by adjusting your attitude
or dreamily “visualizing” success.
Calvinists thought “negatively,” as we would say today, carrying a
weight of guilt and foreboding that sometimes broke their spirits. It
was in response to this harsh attitude that positive thinking arose —
among mystics, lay healers and transcendentalists — in the 19th
century, with its crowd-pleasing message that God, or the universe, is
really on your side, that you can actually have whatever you want, if
the wanting is focused enough.
When it comes to how we think, “negative” is not the only alternative
to “positive.” As the case histories of depressives show, consistent
pessimism can be just as baseless and deluded as its opposite. The
alternative to both is realism — seeing the risks, having the courage
to bear bad news and being prepared for famine as well as plenty. We
ought to give it a try.
Barbara Ehrenreich is the author, most recently, of “This Land Is
Their Land: Reports From a Divided Nation.”
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julian walker
September 2009 
