Re: The Secret, Peale, Sontag, and the Serenity Prayer
03/17/07 06:20 PM
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hohoyumyum
Reged: 05/28/03
Posts: 2263
Loc: SacTown, CA
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Quote:
So if the message of The Secret is that you should count your blessings rather than always focusing on what you don't have and you should be open to opportunities to make your life better and you should think about what you really want out of life and go after it, I'm all for it.
In my opinion, you hit the nail on the head with this one. I've seen the DVD and I think that this is the point of it. Figure out what you want, go get it, be open to anything that helps you get there.
However, I also agree, and have thought what you said nearly verbatim, that there are many circumstances in this world that no amount of positive thinking on the part of the effected will change.
Quote:
the type of thinking in "The Secret" and the dozens of other Positive Thinking self-help books like it is extremely dangerous because the inescapable end result of it is "you get what you deserve", also known as "blame the victim". Poor? It's not because you were born with a learning disability to a family too poor to get you tested and you went through an underfunded school system that couldn't help you; it's because you attract povery. Sick? It's not germs or genetics or random chance; it's because you attract illness. Read a few stories about cancer patients who turn to Positive Visualization and don't get better and blame themselves for the fact that they're going to die because they have "bad thoughts" and suddenly these books don't look so benign. Rape, murder, incest, torture, genocide, terrorism? Hey, you get what you deserve. And even if you buy the idea of Ask-Believe-Receive for adults, none of these books seem to talk about children who suffer. Sheds a whole new light on the subject, doesn't it?
I think, and I knew this about myself from a young age, that inaction changes nothing. If you don't like a situation, do everything in your power to make it what you want. And when you do everything you can, if it doesn't work and you're no better off, don't blame yourself. Put faith in a greater plan. Maybe there is one, maybe there isn't, I don't know. For some, that power is God, for others their family, for others it might be justice or universal balance or anything that is enjoyable, from religion to potato chips. It really doesn't matter what a person uses. But that faith helps people to understand why things happen.
I do agree unconditionally with one point that these people, the teachers of "The Secret" make. Life is meant to be joyous. And there is enough of everything to go around.
Whatever makes you happy, and doesn't hurt someone else, go for it. We could all bite it tomorrow for all we know. The sun could burn out. Natural disasters, disease, famine, hell even going for a car ride has no guarantees.
My point, now that I have gone off on this rant is:
DON'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW!
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If you're not dead, you've still got time.
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