The Secret

Robin Byrne promises (and Oprah and her minions are buying) "a new era of humankind". The premise of her book/movie/movement is the law of attraction: put into the universe your positive mantra, thoughts and fervent beliefs and you will be rewarded with the answering of your dreams.

Sounds fantastic, and familiar. Every world religion has a version of this idea, i.e. the Golden Rule, and popular new age theory is rife with "the universe will reward you for doing good" mentality. Actual scientists who study quantum physics and human behavior have a word for this: psuedoscience.

Can we change our lives just by improving our outlook on life? I don't know, but I do believe that losing negative thinking and habits make you feel better.

It's just hard. Knee-jerk cynicism is harder to give up than heroin (I imagine). So many people spew sarcasm with every breath, thinking it's a sign of intelligence and cool,not knowing it's actually more revealing of their fear of inadequacy.

What do I know? See, you're being negative.

I think your mantra for today ought to be, "I only wish Trouble well and have positive thoughts about her."

I'll do the same for you.

You know, I can't help thinking that if I produced a hokey self-empowerment DVD and marketed it to the right people, making millions in the process, I would sure feel positive about life.

Oy, this is hard.