Smile or Die
Barbara Ehrenreich
RSA Animate (2010)
Film Review
Smile or Die is a clever animation of a Barbara Ehrenreich talk on the ruthless cruelty of “positive thinking” in an era of economic misery.
The video highlights how positive thinking is actually a form of pernicious psychological manipulation that shifts the blame for extreme income inequality from the greedy 1% to the working people they exploit.
Examples include the cynical cruelty of rebranding layoffs as a “growth opportunity.”
Ehrenreich is especially critical of the branch of positive thinking which maintains you can change the world (and get rich) merely by thinking the right kind of thoughts.
The Most Revolutionary Act 