The
self-help industry often been attributed as a source of inspiration
and useful principle for many people. But I have raised problems
about it, that it is sometimes being used to condemn people to the
point of harming them at times. That's what I theorized in my article
about The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.
Napoleon Hill, writer of many 'self-help' books; but was this part of an industrialist plot to quell worker dissent? |
The
Secret itself is a refurbishing of what is often called MagicalVoluntarism, the belief that as long as people will for something
strongly enough, it will be magically be 100% certain success for
them, whether they take action or not. In other words, they will get
what they want and life will be easy as long as they want it hard
enough ("focus your mind" or "work hard enough").
This actually panders to people with sense of entitlement and may
actually have the effect of making people more mendicant, covetous
and arrogant rather than responsible.