Barbara Ehrenreich Smile Or Die Analysis

This world has a cultural bias that has spread land to land into the minds and hearts of almost every person. This bias is hurting everyone, and forcing a sense of false optimism and blinding us to the truth. This bias says that people are at their own personal fault for not being happy and it is killing the varied emotions that have grown through evolution to help the human species survive.
The idea that a person should be happy, simply because another person is worse off is hurting everyone. It is hurting people in dire situations who are constantly being told that they can choose to be happy because they could have it worse. This idea is hurting people who worked for years to get where they wanted to be, only to be told they are selfish because they have more than another person. This bias is not just causing people to blame victims, but is also causing people not to see their problems for what they are, because they’re telling themselves to get over themselves, and not actually looking at their problems.
Humans have hundreds of emotions. These emotions are one of the things that breaks us away from the animal world. They are …show more content…
It is found more and more in different aspects of the American life, more than just the corporate workplace. In a video found online, called Smile Or Die, a talk by Barbara Ehrenreich is used, which pointed out that forcing people to be optimistic and happy has been used as a means of social and political control. In those situations, pointing out the bad, the ugly, and the sad, can get a person shunned from the minds and hearts of others. Instead of thinking about what needs to be done about different parts of the world that are threatening, we avoid and ignore the threats. This could lead to “willful ignorance” (Ehrenreich), requiring that nobody point out difficulties and that we refuse to acknowledge