It was a tough call, but I’d have to go with :
as my favorate.
1: No one “gets” everything. We are all without a clue, now and then. Feeling as if this mundane aspect of life defines you is a special case of not getting it.
2: Delusions seems real to those who have them. Their lives are subject to harsh consequences when reality interrupts their perceptions. Of course, we all have our delusions, and most of us suffer from having them interrupted by realities. Ordinary is a very broad range.
3: People mostly imitate each other. When that doesn’t work, it makes them unhappy.
4: Having problems is just another way life gives you stuff to do, which is called living. An unacknowledged problem, like many other problems can go away on its own. Or it can be that you get to have that problem until you die. That usually works.
5: Rewards are nice. Don’t count on them. Doing something is great, if the doing of the thing is what you want. If the results of doing the thing are all that matters, then you should pay someone else to do it. He might like that.
6: Shit happens. You decide how you feel about that.
7: Life sometimes happens. For some it happens to them. For others, it happens for them. Sometimes life stops happening. Try having someone else around. If life happens, or stops happening for either of you, it feels better than being alone.
8: It is better to forgive than it is to pack a grudge around with you for the rest of your freaking life. Being forgiven is the duty that that need implies.
9: I know how I want people to act. Mostly they don’t act that way. The only thing I get to choose is how I respond to that. I choose the people who make me feel good, because I like feeling good, better than feeling bad. You might like it different.
10: There are many aspects of human life, and human experience which gain no particular benefit from being discussed. Privacy is underrated.
Tris
Damnit, Tris, I keep telling you: The fact that your mother slept with Phil does not mean you’re going to get his Oprah money.
Maybe you’re smarter than the average bear. There are a lot of people in the world who are:
- Lower than average intelligence (about half of the world, in fact),
and - Not self-aware enough to see the things Dr. Phil tells them on their own.
If Dr. Phil writes books that help people from his target audience have a few original, helpful thoughts, then he has contributed to the overall good in the world.
Especially on a board such as this I should think it should be obvious why the world needs Dr Phil.
Yes, we all get that you (and we) are way, way, to far evolved to ever require the kind of advice or direction that the good Dr is offering. And we are far to elitist and clever to do anything but sneer at anything so mainstream and, gasp, popular!
But a quick cruise around this board on any given day reveals that we are routinely outraged by, bad parenting, poor relationships, people stuck in violent relationships, persons unable to own their own behaviours, people unwilling to take responsibility for their actions, etc, etc.
But while we, and it would seem, the rest of the world, is willing to bitch and moan and lament the above. And stand in righteous condemnation, in spades, it’s all just recreational outrage when it comes right down to it.
There is someone who is trying to create change. And that someone is this man. We all get that you don’t need his homey advice (you’re sooo evolved!). But, y’know what? Millions (yes, millions) find some truth or valuable direction in what he’s saying. That’s why he has his own show, sells millions of books, and make $$$ to appear anywhere. Because he’s hitting a nerve, telling people things they need to hear, things that serve them, to live better lives, be better people.
I have yet to hear him say anything that isn’t positive or true. Is it anything that hasn’t been said before, repeatedly, since the beginning of time, by all the sages? No, it’s not, but it’s been put into language that makes it accessible to the people who need it most.
There are lots of evil, manipulative people in the world preaching all kinds of vile nonsense. Dangerous and unhealthy nonsense too.
Forgive me if I can’t get on board with this rant and choose to save my indignation for someone more deserving. Dr Phil is trying to help people who want help to make better families and better lives. Yeah, let’s all hope he burns in hell for it.
So tell me, what have you done to help thousands of people? Besides, y’know, besides being critical.
Eh, I too find it more pleasing to make fun of Phil’s bromides than to treat them with profound reverence. While I respect the fact that many people are enlightened by Dr. Phil’s products, that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to laugh at how he’s raking in millions of dollars by selling common sense packaged in pithy, down-homey statements. Without reading his book, though, I get the impression that he simply took what Stephen R. Covey wrote in The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People and put his own Dr. Phil flavor to it. Would anyone who has read both books care to tell me this is an accurate assessment?
A Monkey with a Gun’s list made me laugh.
Dr. Phil himself will line up first to tell you that he didn’t invent some mysterious perfect truth he’s now handing down from on high, it’s just plain sense. Neither did Covey. But as a few have pointed out, people strangely lack plain sense a great deal of the time. Mocking those who are bringing it seems petty and small to me. Far better to mock those in need of mocking.
Which is to say…mock Dr. Phil’s bloated ego and irritating persona til the cows come, I’m okay with that. Even the rest of his books, which I think were much more about milking it and kinda sucked. I just happen to know that this particular book really is an excellent…relly excellent “self-help” book, precisely because it is beautifully simple, real, and true, not to mention pretty breezy read, and just about anyone could gain something from it. So I defend it for the benefit of The Lurkers.
He looked at it, and the typed it up verbatim. From that, I can make three assumptions:
-
He lied to us and actually bought it.
-
He tore a page out, thus defacing someone else’s property.
-
He has a photographic memory.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume #3.
I don’t think you can fault Dr. Phil too much for making money. One of the sad truths of the world is that people don’t value something you give them for free.