[TRUTH TO POWER is pleased to publish this article by the creator of GLOBAL DYSFUNCTION AND UNSUSTAINABILITY. In this presentation, Martha Ireland offers both analysis and options, easy to view and to share with others.--CB]

A recent article, "Happiness Consultants Won't Stop A Depression" by Chris Hedges really hit home for me. 

I live with a man who wants to believe that if you put a "positive" spin on something, that something will magically become truly positive. 

This sort of crazy culturally induced wishful, magical, narcissistic, childish, cowardly thinking and intellectual, psychological & spiritual laziness makes me absolutely insane. 

Hey - it's self-benefiting reciprocity all over again - meaning that I won't call you on your lies if you won't call me on mine. 

I address this dangerous thinking in my 4 part, 3 ½ hour presentation, as well as the causal factors of this death dealing mindset.  I'm not kidding.  Check it out  and please, watch the presentation.  I promise you that you won't be sorry - or maybe you will, but at least you won't be quite so asleep anymore.

Whom do you think this sort of lying-dog craziness benefits?

When I was doing some research on depression in the US recently, I noticed at the right side of the Google results page (where they put links to stuff people want to sell you), all sorts of links to "happiness" sites.  Wow.  It's everywhere.  And if you want to investigate something truly relevant, you will be bombarded with stuff that will try to talk you into going into a different direction altogether.

I was reminded of the shockingly awful "The Secret" that was all the rage a while back.  What terrible narcissism - and a cunning effort to keep our populace brain dead and deluded.

There are many well intentioned but misguided people who think that they are going to live in some nirvana with lush gardens and glorious community.  We can and must work and pray that future generations will inhabit such places, but that way of being is far, far off into the future, if at all.  Our culture has no earthly idea how to live in true community.

This is due, in part, to the fact that our society is founded upon a Puritanical mindset, which is hierarchical, controlling, and ultimately pathological.  James Morone, in his book, Hellfire Nation suggested that opposing trends within Puritanism such as the desire to create a just society, opposed by its moral zeal in attempting to bring about that just society, often created and continues to create paranoia and intolerance of other viewpoints.  This is at the core of America's current political and social realities. 

All hierarchical and controlling systems fear difference because difference, interestingly, begets freedom, and difference, paradoxically, is one of the key elements of union.  (The word paradox comes from two Greek words - para and doxos - para meaning around and doxos meaning glory.)  Clarity and union are the greatest threats to a dominating psychopathic worldview and, interestingly, are also the harbingers of real joy.

Of course, laughter, genuine happiness, and joy are good for the body, mind, and soul - IF they are authentic and spontaneous - NOT if they are manufactured and fake.

If we all insisted on being "happy" all the time, no matter what our souls and reality were trying to tell us, we would get - well - GOSH - we would get what we have gotten - a city/town and a nation and a world and a human species that is seriously dysfunctional and in dire straits because we are simply asleep to the underlying psychopathological truths that rule the planet today and that have for centuries.

Maybe we should try seeing if we still have a pulse - and a brain - and a soul - if we can sit still with truth for just a little bit.

As time goes on, we are going to need every human being who knows how to grieve, how to rant, how to feel sick at heart - how to be REAL - how to minister to those who are new at this game called "reality" and new at feeling authentic feelings.  Once we surrender to what is real, we just might have the opportunity to feel moments of genuine joy. 

Who's with me?

Martha Ireland is an entrepreneur, author, poet, educator, public speaker, organizational and social theorist, human performance and business consultant, futurist, and social architect. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, and she may be contacted at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it