Letters to the Editor
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bathwater/baby
Bathwater: marketed self-aggrandizement as the new self-actualization
Baby: cognitive restructuring, a central element in both The Secret and in cognitive therapy – the most scientifically supported and effective of current interventions for most depression, anxiety and other dysfunctions
Irony: The Secret appears to be built and marketed on the types of cognitive distortions (e.g. “To be happier I must have more prosperity or success.”) that cognitive therapy aims to helpfully unpack and replace with more adaptive beliefs and attitudes.
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What a mistake!
Oprah made a mistake in promoting such a book! Pearls before the swine... We live in spiritually dead times, where the height of religious discourse is bible thumping vs. scientism. The nuances of the concept that thought might effect outside reality is lost on many people, as is evidenced by the simple-minded, hysterical charges of it being victim-blaming and offensive. By the burning of the strawman that getting rich and happy is simple and easy and instantaneous and requires no work.
The newspeak term for this idea is "magical thinking". It is considered a symptom of mental illness. So since the idea has been boxed and labelled by the unerring Holy Book that is the DSM-IV, most people can just immediately dismiss such new age hogwash. Who needs fair consideration of ideas, who needs logical thinking? It's "new age", it's "magical thinking", yucky terms so of course anything associated with it must be wrong. When people use those words it's always with a tone of disgust in their voice, (who cares that they don't know what they actually mean?) since it's so ewww just judge it and discard it without actually being informed, or rational about it.
Can't have these ideas here on salon especially, where victim and misery-mongering is the hard and fast rule. Self empowerment is incompatible with the "feminism" around her. Here we must see social norms and evolution etc. as unshakeable burdens lest we tread into blame-the-victim territory. No room for nuance or ungeneralized experience.
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Oprah, is SOO good that she even forgave David Letterman for his blasphemy.
I've had a grudge against Oprah for a long time .. ever since she killed off Phil Donohue ... cuz I think we, as viewers, got ripped off.
Still, I watch Oprah so I'm not accidentally swept up in her cult. I guess its kinda like gradually building up a resistance. I particularly like it when she's interviewing some tragic figure ... we're in the midst of some moment of pain and anguish and she looks over the shoulder of her guest directly into the camera and breaks out of her, presumably, feigned rapture to make some lame quip ... then reflexively turns to the audience for their support (laughter). The show's really all about her, you know, dressed up as something else. She can't resist breaking the mood so then all eyes will be on her (where they belong).
I saw the show about "The Secret" and it struck me that this was justa glitzed up version of the same snake oil pedaled by Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson, et al. ... that twisting of the Christian ethic "give and ye shall receive" ... you know, the one that says, "I'm rich because God loves me. God will love you if you make me richer. And when God loves you enough, he'll prove it by making you rich, too. So, step right on up ... cash, checks. money orders and gold jewerly accepted. Please be generous. Give and ye shall receive"
When someone from the audience actually questioned the "truths" they were pedaling ... they told her, in so many words, she just wasn't enlightened enough to get it. "Everyone whose really anyone (Oprah always drops names) has drank the Kool-Aid and they think its yummy!! What's wrong with you ???" They gave her the pitch and then wandered off, chattering excitedly, into the ether never answering her concerns. (Because they couldn't)
I guess, for some, the randomness of prosperity must be explained, so, they grab at anything. Maybe Oprah needs an explanation for her own particularly inexplicable brand of success, so, she likes the idea that the universe bestowed her. Personally, I prefer the "Hard Work mixed with Lucky Break" theory but that's just me.
What really chaps my ass over this candy coated arsenic is that I'm a good person. I recycle (almost obsessively). I use public transportation. I work hard and when I have "it" to share, I do. But, I still sweat it at the first of the month, seemingly always on the verge of eviction. I've had my electricity turned off recently. And I haven't been out to the movies or a restaurant for well over a year. Does this mean God doesn't love me?? But he loves Rush Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch, Osama Ben Laden, The Saudi Royal family, Kim Il Sun, the Sultan of Brunei, Donald Rumsfeld, Hugh Hefner, Judge Judy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Paris Hilton more????
Yikes!!
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Blame the Bible.
"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you." Mark, chapter 11, verse 24.
I'm finding that an awful lot of New Age fluff is a Christian Bible verse or two blow-dried and teased out for Insta-spirituality. Oprah's "secrets" are no secret to anyone familiar with this passage -- which, of course, actually refers to getting what you want by believing in Christ with all your heart, but is itself a source of constant consternation and debate.
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Are We Being Duped?
Surely Mr. Birkenhead's article is so one-sided that its intention is to gain readership and, at last count, over 250 comments (including this one). How else to explain the dogmatism *against* The Secret?
I wouldn't go so far as The Secret as to say we "create" reality (like parking spots in downtown urban areas), but in a very real sense we do create reality. It's just not instant.
If what the world looks like in one week from now wasn't a function of the individual thoughts I'm having today ("Should I pitch this client?" "Should I buy a plane ticket for a vacation?" "Should I go back to school and increase my education?"), what could it possibly be a function of? An omnipotent being pulling the strings? There goes free will.
The author of this article latches on to one element of The Secret (that sometimes "life happens"), damns the whole enterprise and fails to appreciate the rest. There are many people who are caught in the myth that they have no control over their lives and although I would have presented it differently, I think The Secret is doing a good job of dispelling this myth.
I recommend that Mr. Birkenhead cultivate the skill of taking what he finds useful in life and ignoring or chuckling at the rest. There is indeed much useful content in The Secret and even I (an atheist -- I don't even think that there's a "life force" other than the second law of thermodynamics) can examine it with an open mind to find it.