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On The Secret

By tlambert on May 17, 2007.

Via Angry Toxicologist, John Gravois on The Secret:

Oprah, I don't think you've done quite enough to make up for turning the Law of Attraction into the biggest thing since TomKat. Since you gave it your endorsement, The Secret has become one of the fastest-selling books and probably the most successful infomercial in history. The gaggle of gurus who peddle The Secret's message all over the world are still out there, arguing that it is the answer to every atrocity and tragedy. One went so far as to blame the suffering in Darfur on stinkin' thinkin'.

That's a lot to answer for. But don't worry, Oprah. You still have the power to turn this entire misguided craze into a "teachable moment." And I know how you can do it. Just have your people pick up the phone right now and invite Karen Cerulo on to your show.

Cerulo, a professor at Rutgers University, wrote a book last year called Never Saw It Coming. In it, she argues that we are individually, institutionally, and societally hellbent on wishful thinking. The Secret tells us to visualize best-case scenarios and banish negative ones from our minds. Never Saw It Coming says that's what we've been doing all along--and we get blindsided by even the most foreseeable disasters because of it.

If you are not familiar with The Secret, the Chaser tests the theory:

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Even more perfectly (in WA at least) the excellent Chaser's version was on the same night as Oprah's special on the Secret.

The ABC could not have done better if it had planned it.

The Millennium episode "José Chung's Doomsday Defense" gave the whole subculture a thorough thrashing. (Seldom aired in syndication, likely due to pressure from everyone's favourite UFO sect.)