Willful Ignorance: Why the “Positive Society” is Harmful
Contrary to popular belief, happiness doesn't result from refusing to think negatively. So many individuals have bought into this notion that in order to feel happy, in order for positive things to happen, negative aspects of life must be ignored. American culture, starting in the workplace and moving to society as a whole, has perpetrated this idea that people can’t be negative, can’t embrace a negative outlook, and can’t criticize something. Doing so often results in being relieved of your duties. Barbara Ehrenreich, in her lecture “Smile or Die”, mentions a few examples in recent years: “...you know people who try, let's say, within Lehman Brothers to point out that the housing prices …show more content…
As Laren Stover says in her piece “The Case for Melancholy”, “The American commercial message is not so generally inclusive. Clinique’s best-selling fragrance is the sweet, neon-scented exuberant Happy...Personally, I’d much rather open the windows to the fragrant garden of melancholy, and spritz on something to go with ennui, reflection, wistfulness” (Stover). Oftentimes we see these products presented in the warm glow of sunlight with a soothing voice describing the positive aspects of the products. You can see animations of things seen as negative giving way and losing to something bright and happy, like a cloud being broken up by the sun. It’s seen a lot in the entertainment industry as …show more content…
As Michael Norton references in his TED Talk “How to Buy Happiness”, he and a team of researchers asked people at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver to spend money given to them. Some were instructed to use that money on themselves, some instructed to use that money on others. The same experiment was conducted in the nation of Uganda. The significance of the item ranged as well. Norton notes one example comparing what the money was used for in each of the countries. A Canadian woman went and bought a present for her mother. With the same amount of money, a Ugandan went and did something very different: “...this woman from Uganda. ‘I was walking and met a long-time friend whose son was sick with malaria. They had no money, they went to a clinic and I gave her this money.’ This isn't $10,000, it's the local currency. So it's a very small amount of money, in fact. But enormously different motivations here” (Norton). That’s not to take away from the significance of the gift given by the Canadian woman to her mother, as both of them helped make others around them happy and in turn made them
Contrary to popular belief, happiness doesn't result from refusing to think negatively. So many individuals have bought into this notion that in order to feel happy, in order for positive things to happen, negative aspects of life must be ignored. American culture, starting in the workplace and moving to society as a whole, has perpetrated this idea that people can’t be negative, can’t embrace a negative outlook, and can’t criticize something. Doing so often results in being relieved of your duties. Barbara Ehrenreich, in her lecture “Smile or Die”, mentions a few examples in recent years: “...you know people who try, let's say, within Lehman Brothers to point out that the housing prices …show more content…
As Laren Stover says in her piece “The Case for Melancholy”, “The American commercial message is not so generally inclusive. Clinique’s best-selling fragrance is the sweet, neon-scented exuberant Happy...Personally, I’d much rather open the windows to the fragrant garden of melancholy, and spritz on something to go with ennui, reflection, wistfulness” (Stover). Oftentimes we see these products presented in the warm glow of sunlight with a soothing voice describing the positive aspects of the products. You can see animations of things seen as negative giving way and losing to something bright and happy, like a cloud being broken up by the sun. It’s seen a lot in the entertainment industry as …show more content…
As Michael Norton references in his TED Talk “How to Buy Happiness”, he and a team of researchers asked people at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver to spend money given to them. Some were instructed to use that money on themselves, some instructed to use that money on others. The same experiment was conducted in the nation of Uganda. The significance of the item ranged as well. Norton notes one example comparing what the money was used for in each of the countries. A Canadian woman went and bought a present for her mother. With the same amount of money, a Ugandan went and did something very different: “...this woman from Uganda. ‘I was walking and met a long-time friend whose son was sick with malaria. They had no money, they went to a clinic and I gave her this money.’ This isn't $10,000, it's the local currency. So it's a very small amount of money, in fact. But enormously different motivations here” (Norton). That’s not to take away from the significance of the gift given by the Canadian woman to her mother, as both of them helped make others around them happy and in turn made them