Positive psychology seems like a good start, but is based in philosophical hedonism (the purpose of life is happiness, and happiness is a persistent positive mood). If anything, philosophy should be our guide, as we could then consider amongst possible alternative conceptions of The Good, yet few if any academic philosophers live the philosophies they study.

I agree with your position. I admit that I am a self-development junkie. I have been since I was a pre-teen. At the same time I am an academic and as of late I have been truly bothered by the number of people who are involved in providing advice for others but it is difficult to tell what would qualify them to offer such advice.

I am not saying that academic credentials are required; unless you are telling people how to obtain a certain type of degree or how to conduct research. What I am saying is that more objective proof should be injected into the advice given.

Hope you'll subscribe and join us in discussion of these topics.

Keep up the posting, it's very original and more than readable. I love it. And hope to understand it more (maybe I'll give it a second read).

In my writing I refer to the tendency in some Christian circles of denying violence yet simultaneously invoking it through the biblical language of spiritual warfare (and that Wilber does the same in his third-tier-language Wyatt Earp moments). I think this is also going on with the popularity of Fight Club: we can clearly read it as a critique of a dysfunctional and pathological society (and masculinity), but simultaneously get a buzz from the bloody knuckles. This duality is summed up well in the famous line, at once optimistic and nihilistic: “lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may”.

There’s a lot of having-cake-and-eating-it going on. The most insidious occurrence of this dual thinking is happening in the LOHAS marketplace where everyone acknowledges the unsavory nature of capitalism and profiteering, and then revision it to “conscious capitalism”, “social profit”, “green business”, “triple bottom line”. Reminds me of something someone said to me the other day: "history doesn't repeat itself, but suffering does".

JG.