Bright-Sided: How The Relentless Promotion Of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
First off, then concept of this book doesn't even deserve one star. Secondly, I have to say that when I look around the country, I don't see very many up-beat people. I see people that are so consumed with being "realistic" that they don't believe there is anything to hope for or in. Being positive isn't the lollipop-sucking denial of the bad in life that people like this author make it out to be. I don't know all the people that she bashes, but some of them I do. I don't think that people who try to stay positive ignore the fact that there is trouble in the world, but try to think about what is good; to have some hope. They try to make a difference in a world that IS full of trouble. I mean what is this book advocating? Having no hope in life because it's not "realistic"? Or telling a sick person, "you're probably going to die, just get used to the idea"? This author doesn't really try to prove how being "optimist" is truly damaging, but just seems to make fun of happy people that annoy her. I'm not a person that enjoys being mean, but the concept that being optimistic is being delusional is asinine. The premise of this book sounds like a downer, but it's not so much about "not thinking positively" as much as it is a call of action against delusional thinking. Ehrenreich does a masterful job of finding (and exposing) the common root underlying many "positive" doctrines from religions to pseudo-psychologies, and from the rhetoric surround the whole breast cancer phenomenon to corporate models. The message here is not to be pessimistic but to think critically… which means letting go of many, many delusions.
What do You think about Bright-Sided: How The Relentless Promotion Of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (2008)?
Well-written and engaging, just not a topic I'm as interested in as I was in Nickel and Dimed.
—Asianfriedrice
Entertaining, but uneven. Preaching to the choir, but who else would read a book like this?
—Miche
"#blessedandhighlyfavored" Facebook braggers are suddenly explained to me.
—Rebecca
One of those books that articulate what you've long been muttering about.
—CunningBlob
