DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THE SECRET? (doo dah doo)

     My Best Friend the other day was telling me about a book I've heard before called The Secret and its bullshit philosophy therein. The basic idea is that good things will come to you so long as you have a positive attitude. But my words cannot do it justice, why not quote the passages (I'm lifting them from this review by the way)?

"What is The Secret? What is Rhonda Byrne’s philosophy? What is the Law of Attraction?

It’s defined many times, in many different ways, by many different people in the book. Here are a few of the more concise descriptions:

'Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. And it’s attracted to you by virtue of the images you’re holding in your mind. It’s what you’re thinking. Whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you. Every thought if yours is a real thing – a force.'

'Thoughts become things!'
 

'Thoughts are magnetic, and thoughts have a frequency. As you think thoughts, they are sent out into the Universe, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency. Everything sent out returns to the source – you.'

Got it? If you think about something, that something will be attracted to your life. Whatever is in your life is there because you caused it to be there. All the good and bad things surrounding you – your friends or loneliness, your loving or abusive relationships, your success or failure, your health or illness, your life and death – all are there because you caused them to be there. This is the 'Law of Attraction'”.
     What kind of philosophy is that? So every bad thing that has ever happened to everyone is the result of your negative thinking? You just weren't positive enough? How insulting.

     Unless your personal betterment philosophy can take into account the results of the Holocaust, you really ought to shut your fucking mouth or at the very least not suggest that the Universe gives even the slightest fuck about our existence...or suggest that this only works on the small scale when the tides of history aren't rushing in or out (and even that is bullshit, but at least slightly easier to swallow bullshit than what has been quoted above). So...those eleven to seventeen million people who were systematically and mechanically murdered by the Nazi regime were just being too negative? Holy fuck, for real? I'm sure every single one of those Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, political dissidents, communists, and whomever else the Nazis just plain thought ought to be exterminated caused it to happen to themselves. Holy fucking fuck fuck!
    Even illnesses are apparently caused by you misapplying the Law of Attraction. They're practically reviving the pre-Germ Theory explanations for diseases. Should I have my humours checked? Perhaps my melancholy and blood are out of balance. Or perhaps I need a talisman to ward off evil spirits...

    Also, note how the "philosophy" has a ready-made excuse for your failure: if you didn't get what you wanted from the Universe, you simply weren't being positive enough. You didn't want it enough. You brought your failure upon yourself. This "philosophy" sets you up to remember your few coincidental successes and gloss over your many failed attempts. That means Winwood and Costello are in my life because I properly applied the Law of Attraction rather than it being the more likely result of if you keep trying, eventually something will stick.

     And the sad thing is these kinds of books get eaten up by the ignorant masses that comprise our public. I am not a practitioner of prayer, but the fact remains that I have more respect for whomever offered up this prayer philosophy than any charlatan preying and capitalizing on the stupid lazy people of this world looking for an easy way out to their problems.