Ep. 109: Self-Help Culture and the Rise of Corporate Happiness Monitoring

Love the host dynamic, and died when Adam said he’s a buzzkill and Nima said, it’s funny! Also.. (in unison) the secret! Adorbs

Jn

The Dalai Lama, Margaret Thatcher, and George H.W. Bush serving as judges at a psychology contest is just like Futurama where they used random celebrity heads in jars for important events.

Ivan M

I think I'm in David Baldwin's camp on this topic. I've been trying the ideas and presentations of quite a few "spiritual teachers" over the past decade or more and many seem to have had real and important enlightenment experiences. Where some go astray is trying to capitalize on their experiences by making things for sale and/or falling into the rut of "be like me and achieve financial success." I've wondered if some of them have actually fallen victim themselves to the right-wing self help BS that you guys talked about.

Bump for the addendum!

jack

Guys. A bit of the bull in the china shop here, or throwing the baby out with the bathwater, or tarring everyone with the same brush--you decide. I give you everything you say about right wing/corporate co-opting of every conceivable promise of feeling better or doing better. That's all true and as sinister as you make out. But notwithstanding the half-hearted disclaimer in the middle of the episode about not demeaning, etc., it really is saying that all self-help is manipulative bullshit. Not to mention "happiness is...squishy"? Happiness is why you do anything at all, ever. Because you think it will make you feel better. It is what everyone is looking for, all the time. It is why you want to give people more leisure and better pay; so they can enjoy more happiness. The fact that business and/or capitalism is using the promise of it to distract people from wanting those same things does not change its central place in human motivation. My point is that yes, capitalism attempts to manipulate and control, but yes, many of the "gimmicks" found in the self-help literature are actually positive, beneficial, helpful, legitimate tools--properly understood. Affecting a positive interest in other people as a way to get them to like you is indeed a trick. But right underneath its surface is: a positive interest in other people, which leads to exactly the compassion that leads you to call out for more leisure and better pay. Mindfulness is better than mindlessness. Meditation relieves the stress of organizing, protesting, demonstrating, and campaigning just as much as it relieves the stress of being on the corporate hamster wheel. So--great job as usual on the etiology and the references and the insight. Maybe just be a little more careful with the baby on this one. Thanks.

David Baldwin

Another amazing episode and a subject that comes up a lot in my circles. Thank you!

Another good'un. Mindfulness was mentioned in the intro. I've just finished reading "McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality" by Ronald Purser, which I recommend as a further read. I had a real bad patch at work recently after I had to transfer departments due to a disability, then my stepfather's untimely passing, and the grief let me to being put on an "action plan" to improve my duties at a place where I hadn't been long. Mindfulness was recommended as a way to calm myself down; I have autism, so that sort of thing doesn't really fly. Anyway, I came across the book shortly afterwards and it was very enlightening. Mindfulness isn't for the employee's benefit, in a way, it's guiding them to be "mindful" of the company and its bottom line. I'm in a much better place after doing a bit of meditation on my own accord, and meditating does help, but it's always important to read between the lines when anyone recommends easy fixes. Who actually gains at the end?

Tom Kelly

Really appreciate the message, thanks for listening. Sending warm thoughts your way. - Adam

Citations Needed

I've been in therapy for 12 years, and medicated for half of those. I'm active, I work hard, and do "all the right things", but I'm still so fucking depressed. A lot of bad stuff has happened to me, and people in general have fucked me up real good. On top of that I'm lonely af and don't really feel like anyone cares about me. When I say this to people they tell me to stop blaming everything on everyone else, like I'm depressed because I don't own up to my issues or something. But ya know what? Sometimes you're not depressed because you're weak or because you haven't taken charge of your life. Sometimes you're depressed because shit happens to you, and this episode explained that in such a perfect way. Thank you guys. You've earned a new patreon.

Anne Martine Engebakken Grymyr

Great episode. There's something pathological about the self-help industry that lends itself to sociopathic grifters (including the edgy anti-self-help crowd). I'd heartily recommend 'Smile or Die' by Barbara Ehrenreich, which deals a lot with this topic, as well as the 'happiness' industry generally.

Ciaran Colley

Yeah I’m definitely not opposed to productivity hacks and such. This can all be rather harmless (and useful) and everyone deals with stress their own way. I think what is fascinating is when this merges with political content and becomes an ends or an ideology into itself. This is where things get dicey and sinister actors can begin to weaponize people’s real anxiety into a conservative project or grift. That there could be a left “self help” is interesting and something we wanted to get into but just didn’t have time to. This definitely exists and people in activist spaces have explored these themes for decades but we didn’t have the bandwidth to do it justice. Maybe we should do an addendum. -Adam

Citations Needed

Man, I really needed this episode. Great work, as always. Despite my identification with leftist causes, I still read a good amount of self-help/business advice material because I like being efficient and good at my job. That approach affords me more time to devote to relaxing and political action but can also prove soul-sucking if I'm not careful. Similarly, I'm always impressed by people like Chomsky and Zizek who have remarkable scholarly output and clearly work hard -- I think some nuggets from the inherently capitalist, self-help, bootstraps advice can be reapplied to political action/writing/research to maximize the benefits garnered from leftist action. What do you guys think? Can it be re-appropriated or is it sort of inherently garbage? Edit: for clarity, I also include books on productivity/focus in this category, like Deep Work by Cal Newport, Focus by Daniel Goleman, Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Getting Things Done by David Allen, etc. These aren't the same feel-goody books that are primarily addressed in the episode but still seem tied to the same ideology.

Alex

Holy shit that is demonic

Citations Needed

This episode was so cathartic for me. My boss once told me I was in a “less evolved tribe” while she was dressing me down...a concept she got from a book called Tribal Leadership. Out of curiosity I read the book. And let me tell you, it is truly one of the most demonic things I’ve ever read. The thesis of the book is that people “naturally” fall into different “tribes” which are ranked from 1-5 (1 being “gang members” and 5 being CEOs) and you can tell what level someone is by...the way they talk. I hope y’all do a sequel episode wholly focused on this specific type of self-help, from the likes of Adam Grant and others. It’s a whole other genre. I even have a episode title you can use: how modern social Darwinism masquerades as business advice.

Carrie Robinson