Attitude of Platitude
How positive-mind pioneer Christian D. Larson combined soaring rhetoric with ethical compromises
The famous coinages of inspirational giant Christian D. Larson (1874-1962) appear everywhere: “be all you can be;” “attitude of gratitude;” “live the simple life;” “make yourself over;” and “live in the present.”
Today’s culture would sound differently without the influence of the twentieth-century motivational icon.
While displaying a serene demeanor and relentlessly upbeat tone, however, Larson pursued a dual existence as both a visionary author who shaped the language of self-help and a sharp-elbowed businessman who violated ethical boundaries in his publishing empire.
Born to Norwegian immigrant parents in the near-wilderness of northern Iowa in 1874, Larson had planned on a career as a Lutheran minister. But after a year at a Lutheran seminary in Minneapolis in 1894, he grew interested in Unitarianism, Transcendentalism, and the new mind-power philosophies sweeping the Western world, particularly following an experience of “cosmic consciousness” — the state of inner awareness and elevated perspective…
