Barbara Ehrenreich gets me.

Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to “prosper” you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of “positive psychology” and the “science of happiness.” Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis.

There is a simple test to find out if you are a cranky (AKA realistic) person vs. a willing victim of the epidemic of “irrational exuberance.” Answer this: Did you, or did you not, see the 2008 market crashes coming? Read the rest of this entry

Pretty much I view the anti-blogger sentiments expressed by the Citizens Community Enhancement Commission as evidence of a power struggle over information and message. I still do. However, it has come to my attention that real fear has been generated among some downtown business owners that bloggers are calling for general boycotts of downtown.

Yes, I’ve seen one or two commenters at the Chronicle do this because they hate ReNew or city government, but as far as I can tell nobody’s taking them seriously. A boycott of downtown punishes neither of the entities. It’s a ludicrous idea. I cannot even imagine what downtown merchants would have to do, for me to boycott them generally or to call for a general boycott. I also personally know of no one who would. There are a couple of merchants whose establishments I will not set foot in, but in doing so I am trying to punish the reprehensible behaviors of individuals.

All this muddying of the waters masks a very real problem downtown, which is lack of accessibility to stores caused by construction. There were instances this past summer when I had to make like a billy goat or take detour after detour to get where I wanted to go. Some people do not have the time for this. Some do not have the mobility. It is kind of a de facto “boycott” that the City of DeKalb and ReNew DeKalb have created. Stop trying to blame it on the bloggers.