On Jan 11, 2010, at 1:39 PM, James Heartfield wrote:
> Though the finding that France is also high on the list would
> militate against that conclusion, since France is often cited as the
> European country with the most developed hostility to free market
> individualism in its culture.
"Our mental disorders tend to be more severe, as well; though France is pretty high up in the rankings, three times as many disorders are classified as mild rather than severe; the two categories are almost equal in the U.S."
> I have only read some excerpts from Barbara Ehrenreich's book but
> what I did read seemed a bit one-sided to me. Is the official
> culture unremittingly optimistic and individualistic? I would say it
> is almost the opposite. I hear overwhelming pessimism and a ever-
> greater willingness on the part of professionals and others to take
> people's decision-making away from them.
As I keep saying, if you're going to offer opinions on the USA, you should really spend some time here. Yes the official culture is unremittingly optimistic and individualistic. I don't know where you hear this pessimism. How officialdom behaves doesn't always comport with official culture, of course. And given the way Americans pop antidepressants, I'd say we're not as happy as we claim, or are supposed to be. But again, reality and official ideology are often not in harmony.
Doug