Mindfulness is now all the rage. From celebrity endorsements to monks, neuroscientists and meditation coaches rubbing shoulders with CEOs at the World Economic Forum in Davos, it is clear that mindfulness has gone mainstream. Some have called it a revolution.
The evangelical promotion of mindfulness as a panacea for all that ails us has begun to give way to a backlash, with questions arising whether its claims for achieving happiness, wellbeing and career success have been over-sold. Expanding on his influential essay "Beyond McMindfulness", Ronald Purser debunks the so-called "mindfulness revolution", arguing its proponents have reduced mindfulness to a self-help technique that fits snugly into a consumerist culture complicit with Western materialistic values.
Content Note
What mindfulness revolution? -- Neoliberal mindfulness -- The mantra of stress -- Privatizing mindfulness -- Colonizing mindfulness -- Mindfulness as social amnesia -- Mindfulness' truthiness problem -- Mindful employees -- Mindful merchants -- Mindful elites -- Mindful schools -- Mindful warriors -- Mindful politics -- Conclusion : Liberating mindfulness.