Just read this brilliant article on Oprah and her new age ponzi scheme and wondered what supporters of hers feel about her getting millions off people with something akin to a energy bracelet.
I’m looking for honest answers on what intelligent people who are fans of hers think of her involvement in something like this.
The Secret is idiotic and, as the article describes it, ‘bald-faced bullshittery’, but it is not a Ponzi scheme.
Where is the Ponzi scheme?
Where does it say that she has made millions?
I agree that “The Secret” is complete bullshit, and encouraging folks to believe it’s preachings is a bad thing to do, but if you want honest answers you should not post misleading OPs.
Sorry it was NOT my intent to mislead anyone by calling it a ponzi scheme, it is definitely not a ponzi shceme, I am sorry for my major fuckup in calling in that.
Isn’t the Secret just another repackaged “power of positive thought” type thing? How is it bad to encourage people to think positively?
At the risk be accused of being a woo woo, I think that the principles espoused have a basis in reality. No, you won’t become rich just by thinking about money. But if you surround yourself with success, you’ll start to think in terms off success. It’s not really a huge mystery how that works.
Except it wasn’t you, it was the article that used the Ponzi scheme language, which as you say, isn’t correct. The article also gets all worked up about how Oprah’s S. African school might be teaching lessons out of The Secret, but there isn’t really any evidence of that beyond the authors own speculation.
I’m no fan of Oprah, and I agree The Secret is 99% BS, but then, so is that Salon article.
To quote the linked article:
*Because, with survivors of Auschwitz still alive, Oprah writes this about “The Secret” on her Web site, “the energy you put into the world – both good and bad – is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day.” “Venality,” because Oprah, in the age of AIDS, is advertising a book that says, “You cannot ‘catch’ anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought.” “Venality,” because Oprah, from a studio within walking distance of Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green Projects, pitches a book that says, “The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts.” *
I’m sure what Auschwitz has to do with anything, I’m not sure what is meant by “catching” something (we’re getting this third hand), and I’m quite sure that by thinking in terms of making money, you’ll see opportunities that you otherwise wouldn’t.
This is hardly new stuff. Napolean Hill and Nathan Brandon have been saying this for years.
I think the connection is made that if you buy into THE SECRET, the people of Auschwitz ended up there because they didn’t think positively. And no, its not new stuff, the point here is that its usually quacks who peddle this type crap, not usually someone well loved and respected. This is stuff Kevin Tredeau would get slammed for, but with Oprah its ok for some reason.
There’s nothing wrong with positive thinking. Telling people that’s all they have to do to get what they want out of life is really stupid. Some people like to argue about who’s to blame - the greedy people who write that kind of crap, or the idiots who buy it and believe it. I prefer to spread it around. Why choose?
A lot of the Salon article is a cultural rant that happens to focus on Oprah, but - as the author finally gets around to acknowledging in the last paragraph - started way before Oprah. I do think the writer has it backward: people don’t like cheesy, useless, easy-to-get self-love because Oprah is hawking it. People have always loved that stuff, and that’s why Oprah is selling it. Granted, Oprah helped make The Secret a big hit, but if it wasn’t The Secret it would’ve been something else. Books like this come and go frequently because people want this stuff. That’s not to take away the responsibility of the people who write and sell this kind of shit, but let’s not lay all the blame at Oprah’s feet.
I’ll usually offer modest defenses for Oprah in threads like this, by the way, but not here. The Secret sounds like pure crap that doesn’t do anyone any good, and the oft-noted angle of blaming the victim is disgusting.
It sure looks like a load of crap to me. In the same article it also mentions her school. I’ll bet that was the icing on the cake for you. I’m glad you finally have justfication for your hatred of her. Maybe you will be able to let it go now that this has been made public. Still, I can’t join you in your condemnation of her as I still feel some of her other works are both benificial and worthwhile. You should have some cocktails this evening and revel in your victory. In the meantime hopefully your a member of other forums where you can spread the word of her lies and misdeeds. Probably others would like to know of this I’m sure.
But I certainly agree with you about it being a bad thing she’s doing.
I mean, this stuff is no different from Ben Stein’s latest bullshit, and Chrisitian prayer, and really not far from Scientology- what’s the difference between Thetans and the power of positive thought? Yet all those have been slammed here by the masses and everywhere else, but this bullshit gets a pass because its Oprah, the same Oprah who let “Dr.” Phil loose on the world.
That’s what the criticism of it imples, but not having read the book myself, I can’t comment on whether the book actually says that. I very much doubt that it does, but I don’t know.
I suspect there is a bit of editorializing in the criticism.
I was hoping to separate this from previous threads, the content of which I have not mentioned. But in general your opinion that you can overlook certain bad things of a person if they do other good things is dubious.
How big a group can that be?
How is Oprah getting “millions” off of people with this book? She didn’t write it. Did she publish it? Is she retailing it? Sounds like Oprah’s as much of a dupe for this stuff as the folks buying the books. I don’t like this woo-woo new-age bullshit, either, but neither do I hate people who fall for it. Even if the person in question has her own television show.
The propogators of this “Secret” bullshit make the claim that anything bad which happens to you, happens because of your own thoughts – that you “attract” illness or even violence by your own thoughts. They claim that there are no exceptions, even for children. They literally claim that Holocause victims, murder victims and children with leukemia all attracted these things to themselves with their own bad thoughts. One of the authors was on Larry King last week, shortly after a man had been arrested for kidnapping, raping and burying alive a 9-year old girl. King asked him if the little girl had “attracted” her own abduction, rape and murder. The tool answered that “there are no exceptions.”
“The Secret” does more than just promote platitudes about positive thinking. It engages in victim-blaming on a massive scale, denying that there is any such thing as bad luck or a victim who didn’t “attract” it.
Assuming she’s the dupe and not the duper, then she’s on par Tom Cruise who gets massive ridicule that Oprah hasn’t gotten.
Why, exactly, do you have “Dr.” in quotes? I don’t watch his show and find him annoying - but he does have a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, which makes the title “Doctor” appropriate for him.