Questioning, Mindfulness, Books
Questioning
With a little girl’s help Adrian Chiles puts forward the notion that we’ve lost the art of curiosity and we need it back.
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Socrates (d 399 BC), D. Brucciani & Co. Photo Credit: Moray Council Museums Service [CC BY-NC] |
A doctor of my acquaintance invariably ends her consultations by asking the patient if they have any questions. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. A specialist in the field of health literacy sat in on one of her clinics recently. “Do me a favour,” she said. “Instead of asking if they have any questions, try asking what questions they have.” Shifting the emphasis on to the assumption that they have questions has, I’m told, made a massive difference.
There is a lesson here: perhaps we need to demand curiosity, rather than be ready for it, if and when it comes. But a darker thought strikes me: what if we’re all so sure we know everything that our honest answer to “What questions do you have?” is: “Sorry, none really. I’ve made up my mind about everything and I won’t be needing any more information on anything, thank you.”
(The Guardian, 2019)
Mindfulness
…Mindfulness is said to be a $4bn industry. More than 60,000 books for sale on Amazon have a variant of “mindfulness” in their title, touting the benefits of Mindful Parenting, Mindful Eating, Mindful Teaching, Mindful Therapy, Mindful Leadership, Mindful Finance, a Mindful Nation, and Mindful Dog owners, to name just a few. There is also The Mindfulness Colouring Book, part of a bestselling subgenre in itself. Besides books, there are workshops, online courses, glossy magazines, documentary films, smartphone apps, bells, cushions, bracelets, beauty products and other paraphernalia, as well as a lucrative and burgeoning conference circuit. Mindfulness programmes have made their way into schools, Wall Street and Silicon Valley corporations, law firms, and government agencies, including the US military.
…It slots so neatly into the mindset of the workplace that its only real threat to the status quo is to offer people ways to become more skilful at the rat race. Modern society’s neoliberal consensus argues that those who enjoy power and wealth should be given free reign to accumulate more. It’s perhaps no surprise that those mindfulness merchants who accept market logic are a hit with the CEOs in Davos, where Kabat-Zinn has no qualms about preaching the gospel of competitive advantage from meditative practice.
…The rhetoric of “self-mastery”, “resilience” and “happiness” assumes wellbeing is simply a matter of developing a skill. Mindfulness cheerleaders…saying we can train our brains to be happy, like exercising muscles. Happiness, freedom and wellbeing become the products of individual effort. Such so-called “skills” can be developed without reliance on external factors, relationships or social conditions.
…Personal troubles are never attributed to political or socioeconomic conditions, but are always psychological in nature and diagnosed as pathologies. Society therefore needs therapy, not radical change. This is perhaps why mindfulness initiatives have become so attractive to government policymakers. Societal problems rooted in inequality, racism, poverty, addiction and deteriorating mental health can be reframed in terms of individual psychology requiring therapeutic help.
…We are repeatedly sold the same message: that individual action is the only real way to solve social problems, so we should take responsibility.
…Instead of seeking to dismantle capitalism, or reign in its excesses, we should accept its demands and use self-discipline to be more effective in the market.
…This is a fundamental tenet of neoliberal mindfulness – that the source of people’s problems is found inside their heads. This has been accentuated by the pathologizing and medicalisation of stress, which then requires a remedy and expert treatment – in the form of mindfulness interventions.
…We are told that if we practice mindfulness, and get our individual lives in order, we can be happy and secure. It is therefore implied that stable employment, home ownership, social mobility, career success and equality will naturally follow.
(Ronald Purser, Adapted from McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, in The Guardian, 2019)
So, for Purser, the original Mindfulness idea, Buddhist in origin, has been hijacked. It has been diluted by the market, turned into a product and debased. Now, happiness, freedom and wellbeing become the products of individual effort which may require some therapeutic help. “The source of people’s problems is found inside their heads”. It is psychological - an internal, personal situation.
Whereas for Ronald Purser, personal troubles, like stress and anxiety, can be rooted in inequality, racism, poverty and addiction. These external factors may lead to deteriorating mental health.
Well can’t it be both? For some people the source of the problem will be inside their heads. These people may not have any other external factors influencing them like poverty or addiction. For others the roles may be reversed. Because of poverty a person’s wellbeing might have been affected and it may have been the result of the injustices of a capitalist system.
Presumably there are practitioners of the original mindfulness concept still out there somewhere?
Mindfulness
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Medea the Sorceress, Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1838-1904) Photo Credit: Southwark Art Collection [CC BY-Nc] |
…It slots so neatly into the mindset of the workplace that its only real threat to the status quo is to offer people ways to become more skilful at the rat race. Modern society’s neoliberal consensus argues that those who enjoy power and wealth should be given free reign to accumulate more. It’s perhaps no surprise that those mindfulness merchants who accept market logic are a hit with the CEOs in Davos, where Kabat-Zinn has no qualms about preaching the gospel of competitive advantage from meditative practice.
…The rhetoric of “self-mastery”, “resilience” and “happiness” assumes wellbeing is simply a matter of developing a skill. Mindfulness cheerleaders…saying we can train our brains to be happy, like exercising muscles. Happiness, freedom and wellbeing become the products of individual effort. Such so-called “skills” can be developed without reliance on external factors, relationships or social conditions.
…Personal troubles are never attributed to political or socioeconomic conditions, but are always psychological in nature and diagnosed as pathologies. Society therefore needs therapy, not radical change. This is perhaps why mindfulness initiatives have become so attractive to government policymakers. Societal problems rooted in inequality, racism, poverty, addiction and deteriorating mental health can be reframed in terms of individual psychology requiring therapeutic help.
…We are repeatedly sold the same message: that individual action is the only real way to solve social problems, so we should take responsibility.
…Instead of seeking to dismantle capitalism, or reign in its excesses, we should accept its demands and use self-discipline to be more effective in the market.
…This is a fundamental tenet of neoliberal mindfulness – that the source of people’s problems is found inside their heads. This has been accentuated by the pathologizing and medicalisation of stress, which then requires a remedy and expert treatment – in the form of mindfulness interventions.
…We are told that if we practice mindfulness, and get our individual lives in order, we can be happy and secure. It is therefore implied that stable employment, home ownership, social mobility, career success and equality will naturally follow.
(Ronald Purser, Adapted from McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, in The Guardian, 2019)
So, for Purser, the original Mindfulness idea, Buddhist in origin, has been hijacked. It has been diluted by the market, turned into a product and debased. Now, happiness, freedom and wellbeing become the products of individual effort which may require some therapeutic help. “The source of people’s problems is found inside their heads”. It is psychological - an internal, personal situation.
Whereas for Ronald Purser, personal troubles, like stress and anxiety, can be rooted in inequality, racism, poverty and addiction. These external factors may lead to deteriorating mental health.
Well can’t it be both? For some people the source of the problem will be inside their heads. These people may not have any other external factors influencing them like poverty or addiction. For others the roles may be reversed. Because of poverty a person’s wellbeing might have been affected and it may have been the result of the injustices of a capitalist system.
Presumably there are practitioners of the original mindfulness concept still out there somewhere?
Books
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World – Anand Giridharadas
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Hermit Reading, Francois-Marius Granet (1775-1849) Photo Credit: The Fitzwilliam Museum [CC BY-NC-ND] |
Giridharadas cites one shocking statistic that says just eight billionaires, most from the field of technology, possess as much wealth as the bottom half of the world’s population.
Yet it is often these very same billionaires, and their supporters, who argue that they are best placed to reform the global system, and make it more just and efficient.
…Clinton, Blair and others started out believing that tapping the power and financial might of big business would help raise standards of living for all and ended up appearing rather more interested in joining the super-rich themselves.
…yet his argument is slightly undermined by repetition and a reluctance to acknowledge that big business and technical innovation are sometimes forces for universal good, even if profits are made. The problem comes when a combination of financial clout, global reach and government timidity leads to these businesses and their esteemed leaders gaining undue influence while avoiding taxation.
(Andrew Anthony, The Observer, 2019)
Nothing wrong with a profit as long as those working to produce that profit are paid justly, their terms and conditions of work are fair and business leaders and shareholders are not paid ludicrous sums of money and indulge in tax avoidance.
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