The Secret Is: Don’t Worry, Buy Happy

Re: # 8

Hi Veeresh

Thanks for the comment. The Sunderbans article was brilliant:)

The author writes <<< Why is there such incredible appeal of the Secret? >>>

In the dominant society aka the U.S. (corporate garrison state) and indeed its larger projection upon the world, cultural goals of wealth and status based on it are necessary for motivation purposes, yet the means to achieve those cultural goals are monopolized by the few and quite unavailable to the masses. The only connect between this disconnect (of goals and means) is to somehow (through the new mythology) blame the lack of achievement of these cultural goals (wealth, family, health , prosperity...cars etc.) on individual faults (personal laziness etc) and not as a result of a lack of opportunity generated by an inherently unjust system. That leaves motivation intact while at the same time shifting blame from the system to the individual actor, even to stupid causes as thought patterns.

The privilaged few enjoy the wealth while the restless many blame themselves for their shortcomings, so Hamid`s gardener sends his kids off to Harvard (together with the few other handpicked Horatio Alger type stories) and proves equal opportunity even as the over 40million in the US alone, (and much over half of the world`s population) languishing in poverty (and most of the others living a few degrees here n there above the margins) have just their laziness and personal character (and Cheetos eating habits) to blame.

By the way God as objective reality is still a very alive topic among physicists, cosmologists, biologists and logicians therefore dismissing all religion based on the mythology of the present is not ``smarter``.

Re: # 12


Kaalchakra ji,

You have just confirmed my worst fears!

I still hope that is nt true, since you have nt disclosed any proof!

#12

Aah, the title seems to have slipped out of reach again!

And to think it was so close I could ``taste`` it - I swear!

Dear Parthaab

My friend, please don`t mind, because this is not intended to be personal, nor deliberately derogatory in the least, but you are by far the biggest idiot, the one confirmed, doubtless dunderhead (in euphemistic, friendly parlance) to grace Chowk.

Hopefully, you will appreciate this well-meaning attention, and choose to not disagree with the carefully considered opinion of a supremely sympathetic admirer. Else, do return the honor and the compliment, as you please, or not, or just blame it on the Krishnamurti brand of fear and aggression that your overwhelming amalgam of goodness and brilliance must perforce engender.

Hoping you had a wonderful Easter and are very much enjoying your weekend.

saima saima saima
there is another word for The Secret, and that is options.
best thing about modernity: god in multiple choice and multiple chances to pick.
how come you seato/centowallahs in karachi were also subject to cheap soviet books?
i thought that was the lot of us commie-lovers in surat and jhumritallaiyah.
please tell me you got free issues of sputnik along with the 5-rupee dostoevsky and gogol. veeresh will know what i mean.
aakar

That thoughts become reality is indisputable.

However, this cannot justify Jesus and Mohamad seeing and imagining things, which has gone too far, and possibly was caused by undiagnosed schizophrenia.


As for religion, here are my favourite quotes :

“All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry”
Edgar Allan Poe


``A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism”
Donald Morgan


“People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.”
Dave Barry


“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.”
Richard Dawkins


“A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti

What the new evangelists do is to try to make you and me feel really really inadequate unless we buy what they are trying to sell. Somehow, the RD and Soviet books were different in that aspect. So now, thanks to children who are more aware than I am because they probably did not read the RD or Soviet books, I get to read, see and appreciate BANKSY.

Go figure.

But neat article, I can share your sentiments. I live off one of the most polluted crossroads in Delhi, and there are two hoardings for medical insurance staring at me through the window as I type this, maybe that is the secret here?

Dear Saima
Why are you dissing Readers Digest and other venerable publications? As a young boy I liked Readers Digest a lot. ``Drama in Real life`` was a sure cure for insomnia. Plus it had Nandini Sen and other assorted models, advertising towels etc.

But I must say my local bhel puri wallah was not too keen on it. He was secretly a communist sympathiser because he preferred my copies of GDR Review and Soviet Land with pink cheeked frauleins and baby faced babushkas. He used to say they were much better for holding the wet bhel with tamarind and coriander chutney. He complained that Readers Digest leaked and was only good for dry stuff and the pages were too small. ``Yeh Umrikan kagaz kya hai, is mein to chana bhi nahi bech sakta huun, bhel kahaan se?`` etc etc.

So you see right from the begining the commies knew the desires of the proletariat. But they were crushed by the bourgeoisie.

I mean Oprah carries a lot of weight, n`est ce pas?

nice ..... nut like bj, i have to read it again .........

`` I do not see much difference between the logic of the evangelists in The Secret and the people who send emails about how they can see the verses of the Quran in squash or signs of the moon separating as per Mohammed’s vision. ``


let us hope (not The Secret style though) once the ``Secrect`er`` imagines getting the car: he probably won`t get it. but if he does get it (he might still have good credit score for all we know) he will happily drive it off and enjoy it and hopefully not imagine people falling under his car and getting cured of cancer and aids. :-)

I saw this `phenomenon` reviewed in news segment og one of our local channels few weeks ago (or when the book came out I guess)...once the reporter finished, the 2 Newscasters made snide remarks on the whole thing. something they won`t dare to do to ``squash`ers`` :)


``There are perhaps two kinds of spiritualists. The first are the few who can humbly face the truth, that our desires are our weakness and then tell us how to be authentic. The rest are the hypocrites who will lie, cheat and/or kill to fulfill their own desires while talking about the greatness of god. ``

this first group does sound like Santa Baba Sharmshaan Singh ji Pehowa`walay...but then again he was caught with a girl in the basement of his dera during one of his DirectConnect sessions:-)

saima

i suppose those who were sent to gulags in siberia and had beetroot juice for breakfast, they had a less rosy view of soviet union.

The author seems have read a lil bit of history, religion, and of course showbiz. However, I am disappointed after reading this article from a fellow Karachiite. Wait for the next sequel of American Pie and try again :)

Is this a movie review?

I liked this write-up – but have no clue why.

(Perhaps need to meditate over it to figure out.)

Perhaps the secret is - it is all in the way we look at things! :)