Action for Happiness Australia Protest March Demanded Wellbeing Be Declared a Human Right
The International Positive Psychology Congress marched through the streets of Melbourne with squeezes and squeals and oxytocin-inducing bear hugs, according to official positive psychology reports.
My trusty Facebook Memories reminded me that on July 2, 2019, the International Positive Psychology Congress was hosted in Australia for the very first time. Its leaders reported discovering that the #happtivist movement was thriving down under.
When I read the item, I felt it the International Positive Psychology Congress had reached the pinnacle of silliness and virtue signally. I opined at the time:
I hope they won't march through areas of poverty. Maybe some won't feel foolish participating in this.
Disclosure: I am one of the original Negateers
I would have felt very foolish marching and I would probably have made sarcastic comments. I was one of Barbara Ehrenreich’s core Negateers, a small, but mighty free-thinking group of intellectuals who were united by their skepticism about positive psychology. We proposed realism as the alternative to the “Smile-or-Die” illusions of positive psychology. We met over drinks and great food and we had no interest in being an international movem…