The Latest Reason to Hate Oprah: “The Secret”

I can’t watch Oprah, but I do keep tabs on her scams. The Spirit Network in the 90’s was what first caught my attention (”Listen to your spirit .. blah”), but now Oprah is championing the gross conglomeration of new age / self-help cliches known as the best-selling book, “The Secret”.

The main idea of “The Secret” is that people need only visualize what they want in order to get it — and the book certainly has created instant wealth, at least for Rhonda Byrne and her partners-in-con. And the marketing idea behind it — the enlisting of that dream team, in what is essentially a massive, cross-promotional pyramid scheme — is brilliant. But what really makes “The Secret” more than a variation on an old theme is the involvement of Oprah Winfrey, who lends the whole enterprise more prestige, and, because of that prestige, more venality, than any previous self-help scam. Oprah hasn’t just endorsed “The Secret”; she’s championed it, put herself at the apex of its pyramid, and helped create a symbiotic economy of New Age quacks that almost puts OPEC to shame.

Peter Birkenhead wrote a piece about Oprah’s involvement in the Secret Scam, and since I haven’t read the book, I found many of the excerpts from the book (and now Oprah.com) to be absolutely infuriating and disgusting. The book preaches this sort of “like attracts like” philo-shit with suggestions like, “Think good things and good things will come to you” and “The only reason you don’t have money is because negative thoughts are keeping money away”. Birkenhead also points to the book’s startlingly anti-intellectual tone with excerpts such as, “How does it work? Nobody knows. Just like nobody knows how electricity works. I don’t, do you?”

Devastating — no one knows how electricity works?

What’s more: the Leadership Academy that Oprah began in South Africa is directed by a woman who calls the book “Life changing.” So naturally, because of Oprah’s elaborate pyramid scheme between the authors of the book, the television audience that laps up the shit and a small army of people touting the thing because of its connection to her, the school for girls is the perfect training ground for the pseudo-psychological treatise espoused by “The Secret”.

The academy is a controversial enough project in South Africa that the government withdrew its support, because of the amount of money that’s been spent on its well-reported, lavish design — money that could have gone instead to creating perfectly fine schools that served many, many more students than the 350 who will be making use of spa facilities at the academy. But, when I watched Oprah’s prime-time special about interviewing candidates for the school, it seemed to me that she wasn’t nearly as excited about providing an education to the girls as she was about providing a “Secret”-like “transformative experience.” (And not just for the girls, for herself; the first thing she said to the family members at the opening ceremony wasn’t, “Welcome to a great moment in your daughters’ lives,” it was, “Welcome to the proudest moment of my life.”)

Wonderful. More self-aggrandizement from Oprah Winfrey and 350 South African girls on the path to “Jesus was a millionaire and you can be too” and mantras like “Beauty inspires” as a defense of the million dollar spa the girls have access to. It’s worse than the “My Favorite Things” shows in which Oprah throws items that she didn’t buy to her audience, clawing at their own faces like rabid dogs to get a robe or Blackberry. It’s almost like she’s purposefully trying to demonstrate how materialistic our culture is. I might even believe that argument if Oprah herself wasn’t completely enamored with her own richness. The Legends Ball is a perfect example: her afternoon show before the prime time event included footage of her riding elephants around her estate and picking out diamonds for all of the guests. This is the woman nearly every housewife believes is some representation of her, and has some real understanding of what it means to be a hard-working woman. When was the last time Oprah had to make her own meal?

Just like George W Bush and Jesus Christ, Oprah has determined her preordained destiny, and holy fucking shit it grosses me out.

You’re so sexy when you’re mad at Oprah. I love it!

The ways in which you rule are numerous, my friend.

I’m linking to this. Because, you know, everyone reads my journal.

They need to add “Live every week like it’s Shark Week.” to their collection of brilliant motivational catchphrases.

[...] The Latest Reason to Hate Oprah: The Secret [...]

“… and since I have not read the book…”

Well, thank you, then, for your evaluations IN DEPTH!

I thought I made it pretty clear that I was discussing an article about the book, not the book itself. Hence the blockquotes and discussion about what Birkenhead drew attention to within the context of my already formed opinions on Oprah and her fake therapy / bullshit pyramid schemes.

I feel like I need to send this to my aunt who idolizes her. But…I also feel like she idolizes her to the point where she might kill me if I did that.

I had no idea about this particular book but my faith in humanity just dropped a few more notches.

Elephants and diamonds? Please tell me you’re making that up.

I thought I was alone in the world.

“Just like George W Bush and Jesus Christ, Oprah has determined her preordained destiny, and holy fucking shit it grosses me out.”

made my year.

That elephants and diamonds thing is straight out of my dreams. Did they have platinum tusks? Was she wearing a helmet?

I hear your frustrations with materialism and superficiality. But what exactly is Oprah doing here that constitutes a “pyramid scheme”?

I signed up for “the Secret” webinar and it is TOTALLY a pyramid scheme. For $1995, I sign up for “the briefcase”. I get the website to customize. For every person I sign up, I get $500. Every person they sign up, I get $250. I asked how is this different from a pyramid scheme and they said it was the same as Ebay. I said, yes but because there are only a finite number of people who can sign up, how is it different from a pyramid scheme?
I got the”there is enough abundance in the universe for everyone” line. I agree with the sentiment that there should be enough for everyone, but with regards to the marketing behind it..I can’t be part of it.
I’d rather not face jail time down the line! THAT’S attracting good things into your life. Too bad, I was really sold at first.

There is a lot of discussion on the MLM course offered by the teachers featured on “The Secret” I have been in financial services for over 25 years. Due diligence is a big part of financial services. The Secret is brilliant marketing and I give them a lot of credit for their marketing skills. The problem with the MLM plan is in the marketing plan. See info below. It is easy to find info by googling mlm pyramid. The marketing plan focuses on recruiting and not product sales. That is where the problem lies. Over the years I have seen many good people arrested, fined and even jailed due to ignorance, not malice.

You can find this plan at http://msoi.theofficialsecretseminar.com/

Here is my reasoning

Legitimate multi-level-marketing plans are a way to sell real goods or services through distributors. These plans usually show that if you sign up to be a distributor, you will receive commissions - not only on your sales of the plan’s goods or services, but also on the sales of the people you recruit to join the distributors. One of the keys is that there are actually tangible products and services moving through the network, rather than just the building of the network or “building mailing lists” or “sending recipes” or “sending jokes,” etc., such as chain letters usually have you do.

Pyramid schemes have a similar structure, but a completely different focus. They concentrate on the commissions you could earn just for recruiting new distributors, and generally ignore the marketing and selling of products or services. The Federal Trade Commission requires a minimum of 10 non-distributor customers per month to be serviced by each distributor after a certain period - without these customers, it is an illegal pyramid.

John

John,

The sales copy does need to be changed to focus on the home study progarm. Aside from that, he program is setup as an affliate program which is not mlm and does have an option to sign up for free. This will not include anything but the ability to sell the program similiar to most affliliate programs. There is an actual product sold to an end consumer.

Tyw

Your initial optimism was justified. Many problems in the first month you must have been in like the first day. The home study program is the best I have ever seen and I have spent a lot of money on self improvement with tremendous results and I am sure the seminars will be incredible as well. .

Oprah is not involved in the affiliate program and is not involved in getting a kickback on any of “The Secret” DVD’s sold.

I wonder if Oprah invests in the companies she touts for “My Favorite Things” before they tape the show along with everything else she endorses? Wonder if everyone in her network does the same, would make anyone rich beyond belief. One thing about Oprah though, is she helps the people she exploits. ABC did a program on Camden, they advertised it for weeks as being one of the poorest cities in the country. I didn’t see ABC doing anything for them except exploiting them to the world for advertising dollars. Did they donate money to the organizations in the community? Did they give a portion of their advertising dollars to the community? If somone is going to exploit people at least do something for them. They are making millions of dollars off of people’s pain and suffering. I also wonder if the money Oprah gives away, on her show, is money people have donated to her “Angel Network”? If so, she makes it look like she is giving her own money or the programs money to them when it may be money from donations.