Didn't you notice the poweful and obnoxious odor of mendacity in this room?
| posted by somewaterytart | Thursday, March 08, 2007My brother, linking to this post on Salon, has gone so far as to say that Oprah is a moron, and I would like to go so far as to say that I agree with him. He's referring to Oprah's involvement in the proliferation of the latest new self-help/belief system to infiltrate the bestseller lists, "The Secret," a book by Rhonda Byrne and accompanying DVD which tout the 'power of positive thinking' as a direct route to wealth, happiness, love, and wealth. Oops, did I say wealth twice? Well, that's because the people who write
and believe this business are avaricious and shallow.
Direct quotes, divided by category of idiocy:
Elitist notions embraced by conservatives and that one asshole in the back of your poli-sci class:
-"The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts."
Anti-science
-"How does it work? Nobody knows. Just like nobody knows how electricity works. I don't, do you?"
-"The most common thought that people hold, and I held it too, is that food was responsible for my weight gain. That is a belief that does not serve you, and in my mind now it is complete balderdash! Food is not responsible for putting on weight. It is your *thought* that food is responsible for putting on weight..."
-"You cannot 'catch' anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought."
Comforting self-deception
-"Ask once, believe you have received, and all you have to do to receive is feel good."
-"When I discovered 'The Secret' I made a decision that I would not watch the news or read newspapers anymore, because it did not make me feel good."
Okay, so we all know that trendy self-help wisdom is usually bogus and silly, and that this is essentially "The Celestine Prophesy" of the 20-noughts, and that spending too much time debunking it will probably make us either angry or stupider. So here's the point that Salon and Chemist make, and the thing that ultimately bothers me: Oprah is falling all over herself promoting this book. If Oprah's telling her viewers to buy it, it's only a matter of time before this Rhonda Byrne person has her own talk show, and copies of the book start coming out of your faucets and cascading mysteriously from freeway overpasses. And I stand convicted that this country can brook very little additional materialistic, hooray-for-me-I'm-stupid propaganda.
And as if we needed any further proof of the rising tide of anti-intellectualism in this country, let's take my Tuesday night, whereupon I was made fun of by two guys in a bar when they discovered that I carry a book in my purse at all times. Quote: "Tess of the Durberbervwilles? Is that even English?" And this was in New York City. You know, the place where the 'culture' comes from.
and believe this business are avaricious and shallow.
Direct quotes, divided by category of idiocy:
Elitist notions embraced by conservatives and that one asshole in the back of your poli-sci class:
-"The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts."
Anti-science
-"How does it work? Nobody knows. Just like nobody knows how electricity works. I don't, do you?"
-"The most common thought that people hold, and I held it too, is that food was responsible for my weight gain. That is a belief that does not serve you, and in my mind now it is complete balderdash! Food is not responsible for putting on weight. It is your *thought* that food is responsible for putting on weight..."
-"You cannot 'catch' anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought."
Comforting self-deception
-"Ask once, believe you have received, and all you have to do to receive is feel good."
-"When I discovered 'The Secret' I made a decision that I would not watch the news or read newspapers anymore, because it did not make me feel good."
Okay, so we all know that trendy self-help wisdom is usually bogus and silly, and that this is essentially "The Celestine Prophesy" of the 20-noughts, and that spending too much time debunking it will probably make us either angry or stupider. So here's the point that Salon and Chemist make, and the thing that ultimately bothers me: Oprah is falling all over herself promoting this book. If Oprah's telling her viewers to buy it, it's only a matter of time before this Rhonda Byrne person has her own talk show, and copies of the book start coming out of your faucets and cascading mysteriously from freeway overpasses. And I stand convicted that this country can brook very little additional materialistic, hooray-for-me-I'm-stupid propaganda.
And as if we needed any further proof of the rising tide of anti-intellectualism in this country, let's take my Tuesday night, whereupon I was made fun of by two guys in a bar when they discovered that I carry a book in my purse at all times. Quote: "Tess of the Durberbervwilles? Is that even English?" And this was in New York City. You know, the place where the 'culture' comes from.
