The Dark Side of the Bright Side

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• Reader Comments (3)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  There is something incredibly anti-thinking going on in the West - for example, with New Age adherents often believing that we even choose our parents. So, once again, it’s all our responsibility. There is nothing we’re not responsible for.

  “Just think positively” is one part of this.

  So is, “everyone is where they are meant to be” - even those being slaughtered, of course.

  The astounding thing about all this is that we are supposed to have freedom of thought - but there often seems to be a ban on thinking.

  Posted by Elsa on Nov 6, 2009 at 11:54 PM

  This mania for looking on the bright side has given us the present financial collapse; optimistic business leaders—assisted by rosy-eyed policymakers—made very bad decisions.

  Damn!  I could have sworn it was the Democrats who did that.

  Wasn’t it LBJ and Democrats in congress that gave us the War on Poverty?  $6.6 trillion dollars was utterly wasted over a thirty-year period, there was substantial destruction of poor, mostly Black, family life in the USA, and there was a legacy of crime and drugs among displaced males when women were paid only if there were no males in their households.  The whole scheme collapsed from taxpayer outrage at the fraud and corruption.  The money wasted during those thirty years went straight to the bottom line of the federal accounts and to the national debt.  A modest 3% interest rate applied to the money wasted on the War on Poverty accounts for the entire national debt just two years ago, when the mortgage follies began to collapse. 

  Ah, yes.  The mortgage follies.  President Carter and Democrats in congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act REQUIRING “optimistic business leaders—assisted by rosy-eyed policymakers” to make mortgage loans to people who could not afford to make the monthly payments.  A young community organizer in Chicago taught his community how to agitate most effectively for and to demand, in banks and in congressional offices, “affordable housing”.  One of the results was the Federal Reserve Bank Boston 1998 pamphlet “Closing the Gap: A Guide to Equal Opportunity Lending.”  This remarkable document gave detailed instructions on how to fake the mortgage legal documentation and “qualify” people for loans for which they were not qualified, in defiance of the law, common sense, Econ 101, and fiscal responsibility.  The Clinton Administration adopted the FRB Boston “Closing the Gap” position as national mortgage policy.  This pamphlet contains a summary of all the stupid laws passed by Democrats that led to the recent financial crash, in case anyone is interested in what really happened. 

  Barbara Ehrenreich and Peter Beinart are two of the more rational voices among the insane descendants of Karl Marx.  But this effort by Ehrenreich is almost new world spiritual in its treatment of our fiscal problems, not at all like the purported hard rational “scientific socialism” of Marx.  Additionally, Ehrenreich’s position is both (self?) deceptive and irrelevant.  Her quote above would be more accurately rendered as:

  This mania for mindless do-goodism has given us the present financial collapse; Democratic Party poliiticians required rosy-eyed policymakers (FRB Boston) and optimistic business leaders (mortgage lenders) to make very bad decisions.

  Why cannot Ehrenreich acknowledge the obvious,and admit that the Democrats’ attempts to help the poor consistently make the poor worse off, and are now doing severe damage to the entire Republic?  Then she would not need esoteric explanations for simple stupidity.

  Posted by scorp on Nov 8, 2009 at 5:11 AM

  Hi
  When the author says ‘positive thinking is antithetical to critical thinking.’ I immediately think about the balance between faith and reason.
  I’m Buddhist, so I simply translate these terms into those more familiar.

  I don’t think there’s a contradiction here. For example, my faith in the car starting in the morning doesn’t contradict any understanding I have about how it works, or any lack thereof. And when one fails my experience, it doesn’t affect the other. They exist side by side as polar perspectives. Just difference views.

  There are times when I doubt the car will start in the morning, and there are times when it simply doesn’t, but that doesn’t warrant sweeping generalizations like, ‘the car will never start in the morning’ - ‘faith is out, reason is everything’ -‘positive thinking…’ etc.

  Look at the scope of the situation. America was the new world with plenty of resources to abuse, little in the way of stifling bureaucracy like in the EU or India. The people are careless now and overspend, and now have to start paying back the national debt. No surprises. The hollywood honeymoon is over. China is much like America was. They’ve destroyed their bureaucracy and the future is set for massive growth, spending, abuse. Positive thinking will work very well for Chinese now. I hope they can find a balance, for their sake and ours.

  I would like the author to make a clearer distinction between the principle of optimism and its use in the context of a corporate America.
  I don’t think discussion around the subject will be helpful unless this is done.

  A note on the megachurches comment - The charismatic movements have sacrificed their context and their objectivity in appealing to the mundane desires of the people.
  They should stick to being optimistic about the afterlife based on the merit you accumulate through generosity, patience etc. Heaven has nothing to do with the stock exchange or political anything, but I guess this is another example of the perennial hurdle of spiritual traditions - where faith becomes divorced from reason.

  Posted by ducky on Dec 5, 2009 at 11:55 AM

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Also by Anis Shivani

• The Dark Side of the Bright Side
  In her new book, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the origins of contemporary optimism.