intertext

I have always detested Oprah. Her seemingly endless vanity and self-aggrandizement. The "oh I was so poor as a child and look how wonderful I am now" rags to riches life history repeated over and over in the books she recommends in her book club. Her apparent inability to make a genuine gesture or crack a real smile, or indeed to do anything at all without several billion people looking on.

Now, in this article from Salon.com I'm glad to see others observing cracks in the facade.

Apparently, the big O has put her significant muscle behind one of those insidious and unpleasant self-help books, "The Secret." The idea is that you, too, can get rich if you just wish hard enough. The authors certainly did - but didn't someone say something about a sucker born every minute? The Salon commentator points out that this book is, in fact, no better than a scam, a huge pyramid scheme, with the horrible O right there *plop* on the top:

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.

Why “venality”? Because, with survivors of Auschwitz still alive, Oprah writes this about “The Secret” on her Web site, “the energy you put into the world — both good and bad — is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day.” “Venality,” because Oprah, in the age of AIDS, is advertising a book that says, “You cannot ‘catch’ anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought.” “Venality,” because Oprah, from a studio within walking distance of Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green Projects, pitches a book that says, “The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts.”