Blast from the Past

Lamb To The Slaughter, directed by Robin Johnson.
St Cloud State University, 1987

Oh my God, I've kissed Sarah Palin's Press Secretary!

Thanks to my mom for spotting CJ's column today and calling to confirm the connection...

In the Six Degrees of Sarah Palin game, I've been bumped up to two steps. It would appear that my former Deathtrap co-star Bill McAllister became Communications Director and Press Secretary to Our Lady of Perpetual Russia-Watching this summer. Yes, this would be the same Bill McAllister who, back in 1987, locked lips with me in a steamy, post-murder embrace during John Eue's production of the Levin play.

I wonder who'll play him on SNL?

Sarah and Bill, 2008: Then television reporter Bill McAllister interviews Governor Sarah Palin and former Governor Wally Hickel, at the Governor’s Mansion, about Governor Hickel’s support of the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act. (Click on image for larger view.)

Robin and Bill, 1987: Back when the gray hair was sprayed on, Bill plots as Sidney Bruhl while the hapless Myra (yours truly) looks on. (Click on image for larger view.)

The Power of Negative Thinking

By BARBARA EHRENREICH

GREED — and its crafty sibling, speculation — are the designated culprits for the financial crisis. But another, much admired, habit of mind should get its share of the blame: the delusional optimism of mainstream, all-American, positive thinking.

As promoted by Oprah Winfrey, scores of megachurch pastors and an endless flow of self-help best sellers, the idea is to firmly believe that you will get what you want, not only because it will make you feel better to do so, but because “visualizing” something — ardently and with concentration — actually makes it happen. You will be able to pay that adjustable-rate mortgage or, at the other end of the transaction, turn thousands of bad mortgages into giga-profits if only you believe that you can.

Positive thinking is endemic to American culture — from weight loss programs to cancer support groups — and in the last two decades it has put down deep roots in the corporate world as well. Everyone knows that you won’t get a job paying more than $15 an hour unless you’re a “positive person,” and no one becomes a chief executive by issuing warnings of possible disaster.

The tomes in airport bookstores’ business sections warn against “negativity” and advise the reader to be at all times upbeat, optimistic, brimming with confidence. It’s a message companies relentlessly reinforced — treating their white-collar employees to manic motivational speakers and revival-like motivational events, while sending the top guys off to exotic locales to get pumped by the likes of Tony Robbins and other success gurus. Those who failed to get with the program would be subjected to personal “coaching” or shown the door.

The once-sober finance industry was not immune. On their Web sites, motivational speakers proudly list companies like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch among their clients. What’s more, for those at the very top of the corporate hierarchy, all this positive thinking must not have seemed delusional at all. With the rise in executive compensation, bosses could have almost anything they wanted, just by expressing the desire. No one was psychologically prepared for hard times when they hit, because, according to the tenets of positive thinking, even to think of trouble is to bring it on.

Americans did not start out as deluded optimists. The original ethos, at least of white Protestant settlers and their descendants, was a grim Calvinism that offered wealth only through hard work and savings, and even then made no promises at all. You might work hard and still fail; you certainly wouldn’t get anywhere by adjusting your attitude or dreamily “visualizing” success.

Calvinists thought “negatively,” as we would say today, carrying a weight of guilt and foreboding that sometimes broke their spirits. It was in response to this harsh attitude that positive thinking arose — among mystics, lay healers and transcendentalists — in the 19th century, with its crowd-pleasing message that God, or the universe, is really on your side, that you can actually have whatever you want, if the wanting is focused enough.

When it comes to how we think, “negative” is not the only alternative to “positive.” As the case histories of depressives show, consistent pessimism can be just as baseless and deluded as its opposite. The alternative to both is realism — seeing the risks, having the courage to bear bad news and being prepared for famine as well as plenty. We ought to give it a try.

Joe Biden's DNC Speech Word Cloud

Just make them go away (RNC 3)

The Star Tribune weighs in with an RNC recap and shares memorable moments and observations:

Department of Condescension, East Coast Division: Downtown St. Paul "looks like a ghost town," one Wall Street Journal reporter says, sounding suspiciously like a Minneapolitan.

Most Appropriate Attire: With a hockey mom (Sarah Palin) serving as the headline speaker at a hockey arena (Xcel Energy Center), some Michigan delegates skipped the evening wear and donned custom-made hockey jerseys.

Speaking of Hockey, Think They'll Stay for the Wild Opener? Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based news service, has its suite just two doors down from KSTP-TV.

Least Recognizable Green Space in the Twin Cities: With an MSNBC booth the size of a house, riot barricades blocking the Ordway Center and milling crowds of every political stripe, it's hard to envision Rice Park's usual elegance. But where else can you read a banner that says "You are all headed for hell"?

Collectivism vs. Capitalism Moment: Heard at a sidewalk vendor on Wabasha Street: "I'm a Communist. Can I have a free doughnut?"

Pigs-Meet-Pigs Harmony Award: Two protesters dressed as pigs and carrying PETA signs ("Cut the pork: tax meat!") were approached by a couple of police officers -- and were asked to pose for a photo.

Most Unexpected Security Checkpoint Moment: Conventioneers were asked to wait when 720 cinnamon-raisin bagels showed up at the wrong entrance -- and the dozen boxes were sent through the scanner.

Best Way to Get Your Political Message to the World -- Immediately: For delegates whose dates with Larry King don't pan out, there are two YouTube booths at the convention. More than 250 videos had been shot by Wednesday evening; the total for the Democratic National Convention was about 520.

Clearest Sign that the Celebrity Wattage Is a Bit Low: Attendees were pausing to have their picture taken with a person they identified as Chris Farley's less-famous brother, Kevin.

JIM FOTI, KEVIN DUCHSCHERE, EMILY KAISER AND JEFF SHELMAN

Meanwhile, slightly to the north of us...

Just make them go away (RNC 2)

Just make them go away (RNC 1)

I don't know who this man is or what his story is. He was just sitting on the steps of the Landmark Center on August 29th. I thought he made a somewhat powerful juxtaposition to the frenetic convention preparation going on around him.

Leonard Pitts Jr.: Another racist column

Someone is going to think this column is racist.

That person -- he or she will be white -- will be unable to point to so much as a semicolon that suggests I believe in the native superiority of my, or any other, race. Rather, the accusation will be based in the fact that the column discusses race, period. It's a phenomenon I've seen many times, most recently when a friend of mine told me that a friend of hers regards me as racist because I write about race. To which I gave my standard answer: If that's how it works, I'll start writing about money. Then I'll be a billionaire.

I offer the foregoing as a gesture of solidarity with an elementary school teacher in California who wrote to ask my opinion of two incidents that happened in her class.

In the first, a white boy -- we'll call him Bobby -- disagreed with a black boy. The black boy, who had been explaining something about his family to the teacher, told Bobby he would not understand because he was white. Bobby said this was racist.

In the second, Bobby complained that a classmate had called him a white boy. The classmate was a white girl. Bobby said she was racist.

For those of you playing along at home, here are two salient facts: 1) according to his teacher, Bobby frequently complains about racism against white kids; 2) 85 percent of the students at the school are white kids.

So, what do I think? I think Bobby is troublingly eager to wear "victim hat," i.e., to be the one who gets to declare himself morally affronted, the one whose hurt feelings we are obligated to assuage, the one whose complaints we are required to listen to. In this, he is an accurate reflection of the nation in which he is coming of age. He is learning what we have taught.

The need, the abject eagerness, of some white people to wear the victim hat is something I have noted with alarm in recent years. They are motivated, I think, by the fact that some black people make wearing the victim hat look like so much fun. Meaning that African America has too often been caught crying "racism" reflexively, crying "wolf!" repeatedly, refusing, where perceived racial insult is concerned, to differentiate between the profound and the petty. We cry racism when the justice system is unjust or a Don Imus spews vitriol. Unfortunately, we also cry it when a Michael Jackson gets hauled up on charges of child molestation or a white bureaucrat uses the unfortunate, but inoffensive, word "niggardly."

If you are white, I suspect, you get tired of being on the receiving end, especially when much of what is called racism plainly is not. You figure two can play at this game and besides, you wouldn't mind being the one catered to for awhile. So you grab the victim hat and, like Bobby, present yourself as mortally wounded by "racism" against you.

The problem with that is, if you represent 85 percent of the playground, no other group can organize to deny you access to the swings. Granted, they might call you names and I don't condone or minimize that. But there is a qualitative difference between suffering only that and suffering that, plus exclusion from the swings. There is racism and there is racism, if you catch my drift.

And Bobby? I wish his black classmate had phrased his observation more tactfully, although since we're talking about kids, I understand why he did not. Still, Bobby is ultimately a "victim" only of his desire to be a victim.

I don't blame him for that. I blame us, his elders, for lacking the ability, the willingness, the vocabulary and the guts to talk about race frankly and intelligently. Some of us think that talking about race equals racism, others cry "racism!" with spasmodic frequency, and yet others fight for their turn to wear the victim hat.

In short, we act like children.

Bobby, at least, has an excuse for that.