Forcing a smile can also be self-forced. This is equally wrong. A
person must embrace his/her true and authentic feelings.
Talking about American media culture and idiotic fanatism, I wish to
recommend Prof. Karl Rogers' book on Glenn Beck
Debunking Glenn Beck: How to Save America from Media Pundits and Propagandists
Praeger
Here is Praeger's link
http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=2147508945
The book is available from Amazons Books
Quoting Alon Serper <[log in to unmask]>:
> Karen,
>
> Forcing or/and expecting a person to smile and think positively can
> only lead to antagonism. People should be listened to and engaged
> with. Their feelings and states of being must be embraced. They are
> sacred. A person is the sole master of his/her life, death, feelings,
> states of being, and being-in-the-world. If he/she asks for support
> and advice, then s/he is very welcome to dialectically engage with,
> with him/her being in full control of the dialectics and all that is
> happening.
>
> And -
> relational epistemology and pedagogy is Freire. Freire is incredible
> in relational epistemology. He would have made really amusing comments
> about the New Age stuff of energy in space etc etc etc.
>
>
> Quoting ka <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 'Smile or Die'. This was very interesting. I have watched the video
>> clips, and read more about Barbara Ehrenreich, and looked at her
>> work and writings.
>>
>> For the most part I completely disagree with her. I found 'Smile or
>> Die' offensive. There are situations when forcing a smile is the
>> only option or hurt can be unintentionally inflicted.
>>
>> Despite the quote [below, Guardian] about needing more 'smiles,' I
>> can only imagine that Barbara Ehrenreich has had very few real and
>> genuine smiles in her life as she appears to be fundamentally
>> unhappy and not at peace with herself at all. She should also be
>> careful about making statements and presenting them as fact simply
>> because she has a PhD in Cell Biology - gained in 1968 - when
>> science has moved on. (E.g. Psychoneuroimmunology.) Early screening
>> and detection does help reduce breast cancer mortality. I am a
>> living example of that and I am still under 50. Thank God for
>> mammograms and good radiologists.
>>
>> I think she has been very very good at being a writer and social
>> commentator and found that this was the way to make money, as
>> opposed to doing something positive with her PhD in Cell Biology.
>> She gives this reason for not continuing in science .......
>>
>> "Looking back, I don?t think I was especially well-suited for a
>> life of lab research: I?m too impatient and, well, sloppy. I got
>> my PhD in cell biology, then gravitated into activism"
>>
>> Maybe positive thinking did fool America..... but I imagine that
>> was to do with many people producing 'self-help' books, not all of
>> which were a bad thing either. However, a more balanced view
>> would be 'everything in moderation'..... and simply thinking
>> positively is not enough - you have to act positively as well.
>> Ehrenreich has done precisely what she criticises others for,
>> (including some large corporations as well as individuals) and
>> used her own breast cancer to get attention!!
>>
>> I know what Marie means, and hope that we continue to smile in the
>> way Marie does - being positive and bringing about change by
>> acting upon the positive and the proven, not merely criticising
>> the actions of others by 'gravitating into activism' and hoping
>> someone else 'takes action' before its too late.
>>
>> Smile. It takes less muscles than frowning anyway!!
>> Love
>> Karen
>>
>>
>> (This review is from
>> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/10/smile-or-die-barbara-ehrenreich)
>> "We must, she says, shake off our capacity for self-absorption and
>> take action against the threats that face us, whether climate
>> change, conflict, feeding the hungry, funding scientific inquiry or
>> education that fosters critical thinking. She is anxious to
>> emphasise that she does "not write in a spirit of sourness or
>> personal disappointment, nor do I have any romantic attachment to
>> suffering as a source of insight or virtue. On the contrary, I
>> would like to see more smiles, more laughter, more hugs, more
>> happiness? and the first step is to recover from the mass delusion
>> that is positive thinking"." -
>>
>> There are some more quotes below from her web site. Can anyone
>> explain more fully what is meant by a "ladies? auxiliary to the
>> cancer-industrial complex."?
>>
>>
>>
>> "Look, the issue here isn?t health-care costs. If the current
>> levels of screening mammography demonstrably saved lives, I would
>> say go for it, and damn the expense. But the numbers are
>> increasingly insistent: Routine mammographic screening of women
>> under 50 does not reduce breast cancer mortality in that group,
>> nor do older women necessarily need an annual mammogram. In fact,
>> the whole dogma about ?early detection? is shaky, as Susan Love
>> reminds us: the idea has been to catch cancers early, when
>> they?re still small, but some tiny cancers are viciously
>> aggressive, and some large ones aren?t going anywhere.
>>
>> What we really need is a new women?s health movement, one that?s
>> sharp and skeptical enough to ask all the hard questions: What are
>> the environmental (or possibly life-style) causes of the breast
>> cancer epidemic? Why are existing treatments like chemotherapy so
>> toxic and heavy-handed? And, if the old narrative of cancer?s
>> progression from ?early? to ?late? stages no longer holds, what is
>> the course of this disease (or diseases)? What we don?t need, no
>> matter how pretty and pink, is a ladies? auxiliary to the
>> cancer-industrial complex."
>>
>>
>> Karen Thompson
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Alon Serper <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Sent: Thu, 18 Aug 2011 10:44
>> Subject: Re: "Smile or Die" : A book by Barbara Ehrenreich
>>
>>
>> There is a better youtube clip on the "Smile or Die" thesis.
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJGMFu74a70
>>
>> Quoting tim sims <[log in to unmask]>:
>>
>>> Dear all,
>>> If you google ' rsa animate smile or die' you get her beautifully
>>> > summarised message in 10 minutes!
>>> best wishes
>>> Tim Sims
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> On 20 Jul 2011, at 15:09, Christine O'hanlon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks Alan for the reference -I must read it! Christine O'H
>>>>
>>>> Marie,
>>>>>
>>>>> There is a new book by Barbara Ehrenreich that is entitled 'Smile or
>>>>> Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World'. You may
>>>>> wish to read it as an example how forcing smiles is actually
>>>>> counterproductive.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Product Description
>>>>>
>>>>> This brilliant new book from the author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait
>>>>> and Switch explores the tyranny of positive thinking, and offers a
>>>>> history of how it came to be the dominant mode in the USA. Ehrenreich
>>>>> conceived of the book when she became ill with breast cancer, and
>>>>> found herself surrounded by pink ribbons and platitudes. She balked at
>>>>> the way her anger about having the disease was seen as unhealthy and
>>>>> dangerous by health professionals and other sufferers. In her droll
>>>>> and incisive analysis of the cult of cheerfulness, Ehrenreich ranges
>>>>> across contemporary religion, business and the economy, arguing, for
>>>>> example, that undue optimism and a fear of giving bad news sowed the
>>>>> seeds for the current banking crisis. She argues passionately that the
>>>>> insistence on being cheerful actually leads to a lonely focus inwards,
>>>>> a blaming of oneself for any misfortunes, and thus to political
>>>>> apathy. Rigorous, insightful and bracing as always, and also
>>>>> incredibly funny, "Smile or Die" uncovers the dark side of the 'have a
>>>>> nice day' nation.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> About the Author
>>>>>
>>>>> BARBARA EHRENREICH is the author of fourteen books, including the
>>>>> bestselling Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. She lives in
>>>>> Virginia, USA.
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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