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Tuesday, 13 March 2007 15:07 |
 | | Marc Mullinax |
ìThereís a sucker born every minute.î
ó P.T. Barnum
ìThere is no shoddy like religious shoddy.î
ó Randall Lolley
ï
MARS HILL ó Last week social scientists reported that Americans born after 1982 have succumbed to an epidemic of pathological narcissism. I have proof the epidemic applies also to folks born before 1982.
ìThe
Secretî is an example of a most horrendous book. It brings the theology
of Itís All About Me to new lows. Itís become so popular that no
bookstore in Asheville can keep it in stock.
The theme of
ìThe Secretî is no secret. Itís an old money-making gamble that people
are profoundly lazy. Its pitch is a marketing ploy of New Age
spirituality: a personís psychic energy attracts friendly energies in
the universe. The magnetic force of oneís desires becomes an invitation
card for all kinds of spiritual and material (especially material!)
goodies to come and bless.
This not-young
premise is the Law of Attraction (LofA). Develop, and then release your
heartís desire out into the ether, and the universe then becomes oneís
Ultimate Mail Order Catalog. Request, Believe, Receive. You are a
living magnet, attracting and bringing exactly what you crave. Romance,
friends, money, possessions, or desired weight are yours for the
asking, and are not yours if you havenít asked. (But letís not talk
about a child requesting the abuse she just received.)
This book fell
from the comic into the absurd on weight loss. Just imagine yourself at
your desired weight, and wait as your desires harness all kinds of
cosmic forces to bring you to that weight. Forget willpower,
discipline, exercise and other healthy attitudes. Folks, I present to
you the latest snake-oil flavor: ìThe Gospels of Greed and Laziness.î
ìThe Secretî is
magic and superstition by another name. Psychology knows it as
confirmation bias, the wont to search for or interpret information in a
way to confirm oneís unexamined notions and to avoid
ìcounter-attitudinalî new information.
ìThe Secretî is
being snapped up by people unaware of the long history of this
counterfeit doctrine, hoping thereís an Answer to lifeís incommodious
problems.
There is no
Answer when greed and laziness drive our questions. LofAís antecedents,
ìThe Gospel of Prosperityî and ìThe Power of Positive Thinking,î have
already proven spiritually bankrupt. The Secretís marketing of Easy
Answers, not the Hard Questions we need, makes it the perfect book to
describe our age. The Secret promises the impossible for those unhappy
with negotiating the possible.
LofA is a
spiritually childish worldview, where people want a Universe where
everything is ìgood,î easy and non-challenging. Eventually, they will
crash into something that shakes their foundations and they will either
experience a Dark Night of the Soul or worse.
Now, let me
partially overturn my own rejection of LofA above. It can work ó in
community. If enough people in community were to fixate enough on
social justice issues, and by getting energized invigorate others, then
Darfur or Iraq would be just regular places on the map, not places of
death. Thatís the real Law of Attraction: magnetized people magnetizing
others for real, difficult justice work.
Finally, let me
suggest a book that is in the bookstore. ìThe Higher Power of Luckyî
just won the Newberry Award (young readersí version of the Pulitzer
Prize). Controversy began immediately by would-be censors: author Susan
Patron has the word ìscrotumî on page one. Libraries are starting to
ban it. Thereís no secret that one should buy this book.
We live in an
ironic, tragic age! Snake oil theology flies off the shelf, and the
book where a snake bites a dog on the scrotum is forced from the shelf.
Maybe if I send out a wish into the universe, Iíll wake up soon and
find everyone reading ... anything but ìThe Secret.î
ï
Dr. Marc S.
Mullinax, chairman of the philosophy and religion departments at Mars
Hill College, can be reached at mmullinax-at-mhc.edu.
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