Letters to the Editor
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unfortunately true
Oprah has been cretinized by her material success. She's been promoting this kind of magical thinking for years, and I'm afraid it's feeding a continuous, snake-eating-its-tail loop of egomania. Consider this. According to the new age gospel of Oprah, where material circumstances are a direct reflection of inner purity, she is a perfectly realized being. Believing this crap is feeding her spiritual pride and making her an insufferable person.
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You have got to be kidding me...
Even though I'm not a devotee of the Secret, Oprah is in love with it because THAT IS WHAT SHE HAS DONE. She was a poor, black girl who was sexually abused while still a child. Only her VISION of what she could be allowed her to take the opportunities and meet the people who have helped her fulfill her dreams, which includes helping others.
As far as the beautiful environment in the South African school--why not? There is no way that one school could educate all of the girls that would want to attend (no single school could), so the argument that more children could have been enrolled is ridiculous. But the notion that African women (on the Continent, in the Americas, Europe and elsewhere) are SUPPOSED to only want the basic necessities and should not be capable of appreciating aesthetics is insulting. And if anyone deserves to be surrounded by beauty-- after growing up in shanty towns and experiencing all of the horror that the AIDS epidemic has brought to that country--it is those girls!
So, Mr. Birkenhead, maybe you need to examine why you feel that "everyone" always has mixed emotions about the things that Oprah does. Because, I can assure you, not "everyone" feels that way. In any case, I'm glad that Oprah is at a place in her life where she does the things that she feels empowers others. Because, in my book, anyone determined to lift others up is on the right track.
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Yes, but...
I wholeheartedly agree with your view of Oprah's school in South Africa, especially the senselessness of the lavish building itself, and the made-for-tv interviewing process for potential students. I also agree that Oprah is losing sight of what regular life is like for the average person. I've even noticed, after years of watching her show on and off, that she is slowly becoming disillusioned with it all; she is bored and just doesn't love her job anymore. It's right there in her eyes with each guest she interviews. I think she should do what most smart celebrities do and quit while she's (barely) ahead.
I have to admit that I did have a look at the "The Secret" in the bookstore the other day, but the aesthetic design and quotation-book-style put me off. And thanks to your article, I now trust my first impression and will most likely not be reading the fluffy contents anytime soon.
I do have to say, however, that I believe that visualization and taking action towards your goals, even in the tiniest steps, does get you what you think is unobtainable. I do believe that the thoughts you send out, as bits of energy, work along with the universe to create the life you have. I can't account for the victims of Auschwitz or anyone else who's suffered in ways of which I am completely naive, and I wish I could (for that you should a have a look at www.tut.com and ask Mike Dooley about it. His site contains a somewhat tacky but pretty spot-on approach to the power of visualization; check out Mike Dooley's Toastmaster's speech if you need more convincing about the power of thought). But I've seen the visualization technique work, firsthand, and it's far more spiritual an experience than Oprah or "The Secret" would have you believe.
As well, you wrote that knowing yourself is more important than loving yourself, and in response I ask, "don't you have to know yourself to know what you really want?". No one is going to visualize and put the effort, with successful results, into going after something that doesn't truly jive with who they are. I'm not going to visualize becoming a successful self-help guru when speaking in public scares the hell out of me, for instance, or becoming a great pianist when I hated playing the piano during my childhood. Only fools would go after millions of dollars when they can't keep track of the couple of bucks in their wallets; they simply won't get it (in more ways than one).
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Refreshing
This article is SO REFRESHING. That's the first bit of Oprah-bashing I've whiffed from the left. Now if we can just make enough women not watch her we'll all be better off.
Attn American Women:
If you are at home at 4:00pm during weekdays - go outside and take an hour-long walk. If you do that every weekday you will find out that the walking 'secret' does worlds more for you than anything Oprah tells you.
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Don't discard the message because of the messenger
I'm no fan of Oprah's, but actually DO subscribe to the Law of Attraction. I haven't read or seen "The Secret" and have no intention to, but Mr. Birkenhead is gravely mistaken when he says the Law of Attraction blames the "victim." It does no such thing. It simply states that thoughts are creative and when you have negative thoughts about yourself and the world, that's what you attract into your life. It's a simple fact of the Universe, like gravity. Gravity doesn't blame the "victim" for falling down. Should one blame the sun when one gets sunburned?
I'm amazed at the amount of anger this simple notion seems to arouse in people. I'm not rich or even successful by most standards. I also realize that my beliefs have a lot to do with that. I don't think people with AIDS are to blame for their disease. I also don't believe that people with AIDS are "victims." Let's not be so hasty to classify every "self-help" concept as snake oil, just because the idea that you create your own reality makes people uncomfortable.
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Better than Petty Repentances
I'm white. I've recognized for a long time there is a limit to any insight I might have into the "black" experience.
If Oprah were white, I'd say what I've always said about these sort of scams: get a life. If you think a book is going to do that for you, or hitching a ride on somebody elses celebrity, you're the one who is going to suffer, and those around you.
But Oprah is not white, though she certainly seems to have done a very good job at finding her way in a white culture. I fear being so direct. If whites have been so successful at the self-help business, why can't anybody else be?
It sells books, TV shows, adverisers products; it makes the wheels of commerce spin in a winner take all capitalist system--and who knows--maybe somebody who plunked down their dough, and seen their heroine move to ever greater riches and fame may receive something from it that it is not my place to judge.
In words perhaps 90% accurate from John Ciardi, the poet: (On Flunking a Nice Boy Out of School) "It's nine month's work I want / and I'd rather have from the brashest lumpkin in pimpledom / but have it / rather than all these petty repentances from you."