On the Danger of Positive Thinking

It starts in the cradle. They have hardly opened their eyes before American children find themselves awarded general congratulations: “Good job!” All of their schooling is marked by the same encouragements. In primary school, no one would risk making them feel guilty about spelling: their creativity in spelling is praised. Whatever their accomplishments (or lack thereof), young people grow up with the impression that they have done well, or at least done their best.

Woe be to those who make comparisons. When Barack Obama, who casts a long shadow, pointed out that the children of Singapore do three times as well as their American counterparts on international math tests, he was seen as no better than an anti-patriotic killjoy.

The positive spirit is one of the great forces of the United States. One cannot think “American” without seeing optimism, entrepreneurial spirit, the glass half full rather than half empty, promises rather than obstacles. Optimism is inscribed in the national DNA. Tomorrow will be better than today. It is a form of courtesy, a shield. And an entire economy. As Robert Reich said, “Optimism is what explains why we save so little and spend so much.”

It is also one of the great Transatlantic differences. A year ago, in the middle of the crisis, the Financial Times published an international survey. Who were the champions of pessimism? The French, of course. The most optimistic? The Americans, ahead of all the Europeans.

But in these times, optimism is a bit half-hearted. Like every year, Americans went to the stores in great numbers the day after Thanksgiving, but they spent less. And positive thinking, this pillar of American power, is itself shaken. A sly offensive in the form of a little yellow book (the color of enthusiasm all the same – the editor is not fooled) was published this year, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, author of multiple surveys on those left behind by the American dream. With a science degree, the researcher is a natural skeptic – if not to say a grump – even if she has also written a history of collective joy and she has “nothing against spending a good day, or smiling at strangers.”

In 2000, Barbara Ehrenreich got breast cancer. She was not only irritated by the treatment, but also by the gurus of pink ribbon, and all the positive people who order you to look at the bright side of cancer – Lance Armstrong called it “the best thing that ever happened to me”. Ehrenreich was angry. She studied statistics, and found that nothing proved that happy people live longer.

She continued by going to war with the “obligatory cult of the good mood” that requires Americans to repress their negative feelings and profess unfailingly that everything will work out. It is not an attitude, she says, but an “ideology” that has ended up producing a “capacity, like a reflex, to dismiss any disturbing news.”

Positive thinking prohibits a person from considering negative consequences, for fear that simply evoking them will lead to the behavior of failure. For Barbara Ehrenreich, this type of reasoning has led to the illusions regarding the invasion of Iraq or the blind pursuit of sub primes. Like Ronald Reagan, George Bush only liked good news. “I believe that all problems will be resolved with optimism,” he told the press on his 60th birthday.

In her book “Bright-sided,” Barbara Ehrenreich returns to the origins of positive thinking. In the beginning, it was a reaction against the rigors of Calvinism. After the Civil War, Mary Baker Eddy, the future founder of the Christian Science Monitor, and Phineas Parker Quimb, an inventor and metaphysician, spread the idea that God was not so mean, that he did not condemn his creatures to eternal torments, and that the world was full of promise.

Today, this discipline is taught in universities that have opened departments called “positive psychology” or “happiness sciences.” It has also been adopted by the Evangelical churches, in which you never see a Jesus on the cross, because it is too depressing. The gospel of the “megachurches” is one of prosperity: “God loves you to be rich.” Forget sin and guilt.

The charge is excessive, but the book has received ample commentary, reflecting the prevailing feeling of demoralization. As in the 1980s, people are again talking about an American decline. One need only look at the cover of Newsweek this week. The heading reads, “An empire in danger.” The Capitol is shown upside-down. The article, written by the British historian Niall Ferguson, reveals “How great powers collapse.” Time magazine is no more cheerful.

“Is dusk falling on America?” asks the film critic. It is true that the new installment of the series “Twilight” broke records for opening in theaters – a cheerful story of a vampire that, thank God, ends well.