[Peace-discuss] [Peace] Fwd: [Marxism] Barbara Ehrenreich's Radical Critique of Wellness Culture | The New Republic

Mon May 28 22:41:35 UTC 2018

John

You’re quite right, it is a good read. I just found it buried among the conversations. The article is a critique of Barbara Ehrenreich’s, of whom I’m unfamilar,  book, written by a G. Winent, and has nothing to do with Louis Proyect.

I like the final statement: “There’s the tacit lesson of Natural Causes, conveyed by the author’s biography as much as the book’s content: To sustain political commitment and to manifest social solidarity—fundamentally humble and collective ways of being in the world—is the best self-care."
On May 28, 2018, at 13:38, John W. <jbw292002 at gmail.com<mailto:jbw292002 at gmail.com>> wrote:

I read  the New Republic article and thoroughly enjoyed it.  The quote in Carl's original post is a paragraph from the article, not a quote by Barbara Ehrenreich herself.

John Wason

On Mon, May 28, 2018 at 2:35 PM, Karen Aram via Peace <peace at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:

In addition to my long diatribe below, I would like to suggest that baby boomers attempts to to stay young, healthy and alive also started in the sixties, the whole “Sex, drugs, rock & roll” culture” as I’ve said previously may have been creative, and yes it helped to galvanize the young at anti-war protests, nonetheless when the focus on the “self” took over, which we know Edward Bernays was involved in creating, that ended interest in the “collective” moving us into the eighties which was the “greed is good” era.

So there are many young people out there, probably joyful at the thought of baby boomers demise given what they have inherited from us.

PS I’m also reminded of the fact that many of the baby boomers, spent their lives in segregated communities, so it’s only natural that many still have attitudes that today reflect racism, something we are less apt to see among the younger generations.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Karen Aram via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: [Marxism] Barbara Ehrenreich's Radical Critique of Wellness Culture | The New Republic
Date: May 28, 2018 at 12:03:07 PDT
To: "Carl G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu<mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>>
Cc: "peace-discuss at anti-war.net<mailto:peace-discuss at anti-war.net>" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net<mailto:peace-discuss at anti-war.net>>
Reply-To: Karen Aram <karenaram at hotmail.com<mailto:karenaram at hotmail.com>>

I won’t read the article, as I don’t like the TNR either.

As someone who has been working out since age 14 on a regular basis, given my Father was obsessed with working out with weights, I am not excessive but I do use make up, and slather myself in cream morning and night, not to mention staying out of the sun. None of this is to keep young but just to keep “me” an aging me, but me nonetheless, given I’ve been doing it all since an early age. Hair color more recent.

Drugs no, irritating doctors, and hippy’s in the past, attempting to push…..alcohol minimal, cigarettes no. Consuming veggies not as much as I should, given I am a semi vegetarian.

However, I agree with the paragraph below, assumed to be written by Barbara Ehrenreich. Keeping the brain fit, is the most important, though I  will not take up crossword puzzles even though it kept my aunts brain functioning into her nineties, unlike her sister, my Mother, whose brain was gone long ago.

Yes, its big business, big bucks even back in the day, sixties before Jane Fonda VDO’s hit the market, when my Father ran a health club, it was all about the money, the kick backs doctors receive from the pharmaceuticals for the prescriptions they write also go back to the sixties, I know this from experience. Some things never change and the baby boomers, those who were sure they should never listen to anyone over the age of 30, aka Mick Jagger, maybe why we have left the mess for future generations as we have.

Now, please don’t send anything more that I might agree with, from that Syria war supporter Louis Proyect, who turns my stomach with his war mongering propaganda. His influence on the younger generations who believe a Marxist would also be an imperialist, is beyond nonsense.

On May 28, 2018, at 07:17, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net<mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Louis Proyect via Marxism <marxism at lists.csbs.utah.edu<mailto:marxism at lists.csbs.utah.edu>>
Subject: [Marxism] Barbara Ehrenreich's Radical Critique of Wellness Culture | The New Republic
Date: May 28, 2018 at 7:04:22 AM CDT
To: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu<mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>>
Reply-To: Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com<mailto:lnp3 at panix.com>>, "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition" <marxism at lists.csbs.utah.edu<mailto:marxism at lists.csbs.utah.edu>>

Ehrenreich contemplates with some satisfaction not just the approach of her own death but also the passing of her generation. As the boomers have aged, denial of death, she argues, has moved to the center of American culture, and a vast industrial ecosystem has bloomed to capitalize on it. Across twelve chapters, Ehrenreich surveys the health care system, the culture of old age, the world of “mindfulness,” and the interior workings of the body itself, and finds a fixation on controlling the body, encouraged by cynical and self-interested professionals in the name of “wellness.” Without opposing reasonable, routine maintenance, Ehrenreich observes that the care of the self has become a coercive and exploitative obligation: a string of endless medical tests, drugs, wellness practices, and exercise fads that threaten to become the point of life rather than its sustenance. Someone, obviously, is profiting from all this.

https://newrepublic.com/article/148296/barbara-ehrenreich-radical-crtique-wellness-culture
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