Letters to the Editor
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Hey!
It's sad. Where is "Bilious Screed" aka Emily when you need her? Probably out taking money from some kids or something, in a novel by Dickens. Fortunately, Dicken's characters didn't have to think positively. They almost always had a secretly 'good' birth and a secret fortune, which helped them tremendously.
Alas. What will I do with all these pumperknickel rolls?
Seriously, while this stuff about the "Secret" provided literally minutes of amusement, it is probably not very ethical to bind up old sayings--little bits of wisdom like "Think positive!" and "Like attracts like" and "Water finds its own level" and try to sell them to gullible individuals. For one thing, most of these are only somewhat true. Sometimes, no matter how positively you think of sunshine, it just rains.
And now I too am out and gone. I wonder. If I think positively about it, will the twinkie have zero calories?
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A not so secret ugliness
You are so right in your analysis of the potential effects of "The Secret" and of the direction in which Oprah and others appear to be heading.
Yet this is the inevitable result of a society built on affluence and self-justification. This is the attitude that one finds in the horrendous misappropriation of Jesus' teaching we see in Prosperity Gospel ponzi schemes. This is the fundamental assertion of the "Church" of Scientology. That some of us deserve to be filthy stinking rich and once we are, we justify our greed and fear and natural elitism by suggesting that we have really only tapped into the way the spiritual world truly works, we have only received what we deserved for being the wonderful people we know ourselves to be. It is disingenuous to label this "positive thinking" when it is so much deeper than that. This is never about sowing the seeds of hope but about creating a culture of adulation for the very wealthiest among us; helping them overcome the terrible burden they bear, the suspicion that perhaps they don't really deserve what they have while children starve and die around the world. Nope, they just deserve it, they attracted it, it was their karmic right or their spiritual due. Deus Vult.
Others may not deserve it, may be unable to attract it, may have the wrong Karma, the Force may not be with them, and the wealthy ought not interfere. Helping the poor and the oppressed is a wonderful thing to do as long as it is done in the kind of circumspect way that garners just the right amount of sympathy and publicity for the saintly wonder-worker. But helping too many poor people may upset the precious spiritual balance of the deserving rich.
God forbid that a greater sense of justice or a deeper sense of spiritual truth should break through the tremendous wall of hubris and insularity so many of these self-promoting pseudo-spiritual con artists display.
The really sad part of all of this is that such spurious spiritual machinations are a part of our culture, Oprah or no Oprah. We are all subject to this culture of affluence that moves us to justify the mistreatment of others as the simple cost of doing business. We all seek to justify our bad behavior, our poor choices, our mean-spirited views on other people, by suggesting that we deserve the good things that come our way, that good things only come to those who deserve them, and that the bad things that happen to US are someone else's fault while the bad things that happen to others are their own.
Yes we are all expressions of God, or whatever you want to call it, but far from meaning that the Universe blesses some and not others so who are we to interfere, what it really means is that we are truly responsible for one another.
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Thanks
Reverend, thanks for the letter: you touched me.
I know people get frustrated with 300 plus letters, but people actually do have a lot of good to share.
So, again, to all the letter writers, thanks. Thanks, too, Salon editors, for this article and for reading 300 plus letters.
(Someone should take the book idea.)
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Oprah and The Secret
I hate to begin with this but, I haven't read the "The Secret" nor am I a fan of Oprah but there is some truth to what she is endorsing. Poverty is intractable not just because people don't have opportunities but poverty is also intractable because poor people can't think like people who have money. I adre say that Mr. Birkenhead hasn't had to cope with the grinding reality of poverty? There are a lot of pieces that must collect in order to create the psyche of one human being, and once the pieces are assembled, each piece in some way has affected who we are and what we become. Fact and truth is that if no one in your family has ever finsihed high chool much less college and no one in your family has ever left your town or your neighborhood, it's almost impossbile to imagine that there's a world "out there" where people travel freely to distant lands thousands of miles away from your neighborhood, daily.
Obviously no one cares what I think, but I would posit: Mr. Birkenhead, if one person's life improves simply because they followed the tenets offered in "The Secret," then the thing that you consider to be a scam is really just something that someone needed to change their life? And that possibility, like the sun rising or a young man or young woman dreams of being a doctor, lawyer, beggar man, chief; does exist. Sometimes thought is the impetus to small and great changes. If you doubt the veracity of belief, you are doubting every belief that every culture has held true since mankind began to hold that certain beliefs needed to be honored.
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Oprah has potential
Oprah, it seems, was once more spiritual. She has done some amazing things that have changed her for the better---one of them: taking a look at why she was overweight and then doing something about it. That takes courage.
She seems to have lost some of her true humanity and has become a celebrity awed by celebrity---her own and others. It would seem appearance is much more important to Oprah than substance. Looking good is important to her. She isn't always going to keep her looks. Well, maybe she will with the help of a lot of make-up and, perhaps, some plastic surgery.
Who gives a damn how we look if we are going to act like jerks?
Oprah does have potential to get back to her more humble self. It is too bad she gets caught up in glamor, sparkle and stardom. She said on one of her programs that Jean Dixon said she would live like a queen. Damn! That's too bad. If she could only live less luxuriously, yet still very comfortably, and put all that money into helping more and more people to pull themselves up to a reasonable standard of living. Why does she need all that stuff? Doesn't it just get in the way?
There are so many good causes to contribute to. I do worry about her Leadership Academy. Aren't those girls going to have culture shock as they first live there? What happens when they are finished and go back home? Can they take one of those fabulously expensive pieces of art back with them to pretty up their humble abodes?
Oh, Oprah. You have so much potential.