The German translation of "Smile or Die" by Barbara Ehrenreich has recently been released. The German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche publishes some comments by the author.
The Americans are a "positive" people. Yet, according to the worlwide surveys trying to measure the "gross national happiness", the United States are ranked 150th, suggesting a significant frustration of its people.
Barbara Ehrenreich's's explanation is that the so-called "positive thinking" is less a feature of the American mentality than an ideology. She further explains that by and by the American culture has been infused with the belief that thoughts have a "mysterious" impact on the material world, as if "negative thinking " could only lead to "negative results" and the reverse.
According to her, the financial markets were not immune to the drawbacks of "positive thinking". The increasing amount of private debts were to be compensated by the global prosperity of the economy.
She points out that "positive thinking" has become a moral attitude, an expression of the good, ruling out any alternative. Precisely, the belief that the only alternative is "negative thinking" is a serious hindrance to change, whereas both attitudes are pathological : they lead to a false judgement on reality, based on the confusion between feelings and perception.
Although I have not read the book yet, I think it addresses the right issue concerning the future of the United States. "Positive thinking" is a powerful emotional screen that is meant to hide the fears roaming in the American unconscious. It bars the possibility of a sound judgement on reality.
This national inclination has since long been identified. Barbara Ehrenreich's reminds us of Martin Heidegger's position. The German philosopher declared in 1966 that the Americans are bound by their "pragmatic philosophy" which, in spite (and perhaps because) of its capacity to help driving forward technical operations, excludes any kind of relevant thinking on our modern world.
The Wirtschaftswoche article is commented by a reader who believes that a "re-Europeization" of the American culture would help in the stabilization of the country. I see there another interesting hint towards Heidegger's thinking. He said in the same 1966 interview that in order to overcome the difficulty to produce a suited set of ideas to live in our present technological world, the "European tradition" will be essential. As he puts it "ideas can be transformed only by those ideas that share the same origin and destination".
The cultural foundations of capitalism is not a new idea. I remember the debate in the mid 90's about the problematic fit between capitalism and Confucianism in China. It is no more a question ; but its Western cultural unconsciousness might now become one.
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