Group 2

Have we, as Americans, taken an idea that was meant to push us toward bettering ourselves and our way of life and corrupted it? The pursuit of happiness is an idea that people leave their own countries for daily. As someone that has traveled to many other countries, I can say that the "pursuit of happiness" is an idea that people in other countries seem to believe in more than we do. Or maybe I should say in a more pure sense than we do. The positive thinking movement has an air of arrogance about it that says we are owed happiness. If you are not happy then something is wrong. People that I have meet in other countries,especially third world countries, understand that they come to America for a "chance" to be happy, prosperous, and content. They have no ill advised notions that they can "think" their way into bending the will of the cosmos into giving them a new car. So this brings us to our two questions:

#1: Has our Positive Thinking Movement done nothing but Capitalize happiness?

#2: Does Ehrenreich believe that the Positive Thinking Movement is nothing but a self-absorbed distraction from the threats, problems, and shortcomings that plague our world?