Duc Hoang, Teddy Kebede, Chloe Le, Navjot Saini, Than Se
Mrs. Mcleish
EWRT2
23 February 2015
Group Fallacy Project
A false dilemma logical fallacy where two opposing views or outcomes are presented as the only possibilities and make the reader choose one over the other, despite the possibility for alternative solutions. Many argumentative works fall into this category of fallacy to prove that the author’s claim is ultimately correct. One extremely polarized topic that often falls victim to becoming a false dilemma is happiness and how to achieve it. Barbara Ehrenreich’s novel
Bright-Sided explores the various published ways people try to achieve happiness and why these practices aren’t as faultless as they are made out to be. Bright-Sided gives several examples of how false dilemmas are used to persuade audiences into the “like it or leave it” attitude related with false dilemmas.
The book’s chapter “The Years of Magical Thinking” covers the topic of how much thinking positively and getting rid of surrounding doubt or negativity will affect the final outcome of a situation. Ehrenreich paints the preachings of various motivational coaches to be irrational when she points out a common theme in self-help tips that emphasize focusing on personal happiness. She references motivational speaker Jeffrey Gitomer’s advice to “...‘GET
RID OF NEGATIVE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE...They waste your time and bring you down. If you can’t get rid of them (like a spouse or a boss), reduce your time with them’” (qt. Ehrenreich ebook). The obsession for being surrounded by positivity that is pushed onto people dramatically polarizers the perception of positivity and negativity to the point where people are suggesting

that the most effective way to maintain happiness is to cut negative people from the picture altogether. Though there are instances where this can be true, generally people who don’t see eye-to-eye try to find a resolve instead of breaking off their relationship altogether. There is always alternatives when dealing with people. One cannot simply get rid of every negative aspect that comes with life or people. Sometimes one has to compromise or deal with the issue at hand. Often times, it is not an option to just get rid of negative people, such as children or siblings. When examined closer, the advice from Gitomer becomes extremely juvenile, irrational, and fits right into the definition of a false dilemma.
Later in Ehrenreich’s novel, she addresses the idea of positive psychology and focuses on its founder Martin Seligman. In Seligman's book on positive psychology “Authentic Happiness”, he uses a very quantitative way of explaining what happiness is. He created the equation H=S+C+V where H is one's personal happiness, S is one’s range, C stands for the circumstances of one’s life, and V represents the factors in ones voluntary control. He fosters the idea that understanding this equation is the be-all-end-all key to becoming happier. But this leaves Ehrenreich skeptical because understanding one equation will not automatically bring someone happiness. One cannot be spared from sadness and sorrow by just “considering the equation”. In response, Ehrenreich offers her own understanding of the equation which is H=f(S,C,V) where “H is a function of
S,C,V and the exact nature of that function is yet to be determined”. Ehrenreich expresses that using a formula to express happiness invites ridicule, as one can argue that considering
Seligman’s or Ehrenreich’s equation as a measurement of happiness a false dilemma (Ehrenreich ebook). The equations for happiness by Ehrenreich and Seligman are not the only equations for measuring happiness. Furthermore, there are multiple factors that go into one’s happiness, so it cannot be just a simple addition equation, especially since the variables use beta weights in order

to compare two variables with different units. There could be a number of special orders that could be involved. There are more than just three factors involved in happiness. In fact, there are multiple theories or formulas out there, so one does not need to accept only Ehrenreich or
Seligman’s formula. The happiness equation isn’t some random formula in which letters and numbers can be filled in with; it’s an equation that makes a very complex subject easier to understand. The happiness equation does not take into account the possibility of alternatives and creates a false dilemma.
WC: 698