whores of babylon

Yesterday I got a message from my mom, saying that she had a question about the internet.

My guess was that she was wondering why her hotmail wasn’t working (again). As adorable as she is, I am entirely unsure as to why she wanted me to get her an email account, considering that she has an ongoing problem of ‘failing to sign in for 30 consecutive days’.

But I digress…

Before bed, I finally get a chance to phone her back and ask her what her question about the internet was.

Turns out that she wants to buy something over the internet and wants to know if it is safe to give her VISA number out.

My first question is: What is it that you would like to buy?

Like 10 million other humans, my mom watched the Oprah show yesterday and heard about this amazing thing called The Secret. The Secret is a book and video project that involves all sorts of spiritually fulfilled people – telling you how you, too, can be fulfilled.

Why do I know this? Well, a friend of mine, a recovering AA person with an admittedly Amway type of job asked me if I would be open minded enough to watch it.

Hells, I have paid people $50 and hour to cure my MS by having them push on my tendons, so why not give The Secret the benefit of the doubt?

Sitting down to watch The Secret, it looked kinda hippy-ish/ eclectic/ cheesy, but that’s okay. The initial message is great. Filled with common sense. Some might even say that we have heard it many times before…

THINK POSITIVE

Okey dokes. Moving right along then… well, the thing is that The Secret doesn’t actually move along past that. The whole ‘secret’ is that there are laws of positive attraction. If you ACTUALLY will good things into your life, they will come. If you do it wrong or fake it or are a crappy person, they WON’T.

The stars of this DVD, outrageously fulfilled people with all sorts of hairstyles, repeat over and over – in as many superficial ways as possible – that ‘you are the master/ mistress of your own destiny’, ‘there is more than enough wealth and abundance for everyone’.

The philosophy, while with some merit, is individualistic to the point where it pretty much asserts that if you are down and out, doing badly, fat, poor, depressed, oppressed, bored, etc that it is because you have willed those things into being. The lack of *any* understanding of community/ society/ systems is actually angering… at least to me.

So when my momma wanted to buy this video, I told her not to waste her money – and that she may want to reconsider wasting her time. I offered to bring our copy over to her (See? Abundance is everywhere!), but I told her that I could sum it up for her in a few words.

IF THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG IN YOUR LIFE, IT IS BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T INVOKE ANYTHING BETTER

‘nuff said.

A tiny little part of me felt like “Oh crap! I *totally* just invoked negativity into my life because I talked shit about The Secret”.

Fear it.