Ronald Purser, a professor at San Francisco State University and author of McMindfulness, offers a sharp critique of how mindfulness has been popularised. The piece was published in openDemocracy and reposted by the Mindfulness and Social Change Network.
A revolution that changes nothing
People speak of a “mindfulness revolution”, but for Purser it leaves structural problems untouched: inequality, corporate power and precarity remain the same.
Stress as an individual problem
Mindfulness is often sold as a self-help tool that puts all the responsibility on the individual. Stress is treated as a lifestyle issue when it often has social causes. Purser also warns it can become a tool to make us more productive and resilient to precarious working conditions.
The risk of “only now”
Focusing everything on the present moment can make us forget history and dim our imagination of a better future.
His proposal
Purser doesn’t ask us to drop meditation. He proposes a social and civic mindfulness that joins contemplative practice with critical thinking and a commitment to justice.
This is the author’s opinion piece; we share it to open the conversation.
Source: Mindfulness and Social Change Network – The faux revolution of mindfulness.
