February 17th, 2009
Manifesting Success
I discovered The Secret! If you beat the crap out of new age, manifesting hippies according to their stupid beliefs, it’s not your fault. It’s their own fault. Wheee! I know what I’m doing this weekend.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Love it. Not that I condone violence, of course. Well, not unless people positively manifest it.
February 17th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Hehe heee!
Wup some hippie ass!
Yeahaaa!
One of your best so far ;o)
February 17th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
To insist people only suffer because they choose to is just plain ignorant. But instead of watching “The Secret,” maybe you should read “As a Man Thinketh.” Positive thinking isn’t really about having everything go perfectly for you, but about your own actions and your reactions to external influences. Just ask Victor Frankl.
(I know, I know, it’s a comic. Humor. I get it. It’s just an interesting topic to me.)
February 17th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
brilliant
February 17th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
I suppose this is related too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usbNJMUZSwo
Their skit on evangelicals is also a worthy watch. And yes, violence against hippies is fun.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Brilliant. I find the idea that people bring misfortune and tragedy on themselves through negative thinking pretty offensive. This cartoon is an excellent antidote – thank you.
February 17th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
have you noticed the ads that are showing up? TeeHee
February 18th, 2009 at 4:31 am
is it just me, or are YOU really just missing the point? because clearly, the so-called new aged “hippie” you’ve illustrated who got the crap beaten out of him isn’t getting the point either. He’s completely misapplying The Secret by saying that Holocaust and Nanking victims during WWII attracted their misfortune.
there’s so much misinformation going on here that i don’t even know where to start. talk about judging without fully understanding the theory. eesh.
February 18th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Karen, I know a lot of people who believe this stuff and they do think that people bring suffering upon themselves. Let me quote you from The Secret itself:
That’s a pretty clear blame-the-victim ideology.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Great comic.
I think Karen is probably a believer in the “Law of Attraction.” This is what The Secret is based on, but The Secret takes it to a very superficial and materialistic level. Most LOA believers I have talked to do not like The Secret.
Either way, if you really believe you attract EVERYTHING in your life and someone comes up to you and smacks you around… it’s YOUR fault.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Fair enough. I totally see your point. “Blame-the-victim” is clearly simplifying a much more complex problem, if we’re talking about large-scale tragedies, or even certain atrocities that happen to our friends and family.
What The Secret preaches about the Laws of Attraction obviously isn’t the only thing dictating events in this world. It’s only one “source of energy” that drives the Universe, so to speak. It all works holistically. I would NOT go so far as to say that mass tragedy is entirely the fault of the victims, because it’s obvious that there were others who CHOSE to orchestrate these devestating events, and most of the blame needs to be directed to them. That shouldn’t ever be forgotten.
If however, you look at this theory at the individual level, it is true that cynics attract cynics; optimists attract optimists; those who strive to make their society better will attract the same people with the same aspirations to do so, and therefore they all flourish as a community. I’m sure you understand that much right?
And I’m going to say something now that I hope won’t be misunderstood (as you read this next bit, please keep in mind what I said before about where most of the blame should be placed): as insulting as it can be to take this into consideration, ultimately, pessimists who do not dream of something better will not achieve anything better. Those who always think of themselves as the victim will ultimately always remain the victim, because a large part of reality is due to perception of one’s circumstances. When misfortune befalls you, you could either respond with “woe-is-me”, or you could take it as a challenge and rise to the occasion to learn from it. It’s as plain as that.
As much as the world brings on horror to those who don’t deserve it, if victims do not take a stand to climb out of the ditch, it will be a rarity that anyone else will be willing to do it for them.
Also, a friend of mine said (and I do agree with this), “Thoughts do have power.. But I would agree that its a lil delusional to think that you control the weather or something.. I mean.. You can bring an umbrealla
. And wear warm clothes.
There is obviously other factors outside of intention.. But don’t undervalue intention.”
Those are my thoughts, anyway. I’d be interested to know you response.
February 18th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Jonathan: very true! Not sure if I can be categorized as an LOA believer per say, but I prescribe to its most basic principle in my own life. It’s helped me appraise negative situations more positively, anyway. Just happy times all around.
I could go on about it, but I don’t think it’s my place to take up any more of Wellington’s cyberspace =P
February 18th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Karen, the major problem with the Secret is that it conflates two modes of thought, one helpful, one vile. positive thinking is perfectly reasonable, and as you have described it a great way of living. Obviously to be successful you have to have drive and ambition and belief. People congregate with the like minded, certainly, and depression and negativity can produce ever deepening feedback loops.
Where it all goes wrong is in trying to tie this rational idea in with talk about ‘energies’ and the ‘universe’, and how good things or negative things will be ‘attracted’ to you. This is palpable bullshit. Energy is always a measurable and defined physical phenomena. If you cannot measure or perceive an energy it is not there. The universe is the totality of physical, material things. It has no concsiousness or awareness of your existence. When I work hard and get rewarded it is because of my hard work, the luck of my background and upbringing, and the happy confluence of random events. When I feel and behave in the same way and do not get the results I want it is nothing to do with the universe or energies. Shit truly does just happen.
So enjoy your positive thinking. Relish that your actions enrich your life. But the only power your thoughts have is to induce you to physically change your world; all else is just hippy delusion.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
I agree that shit truly does just happen; I won’t go on and try to disprove that. Besides, it’d be near impossible to attribute to every event in the world to something or other with certainty.
What I find interesting though, is that a lot of Eastern theories centre around “energies” and “the universe” – these have held up for thousands of years now and, because of their CONSISTENT success in healing illnesses when practiced accurately, are currently being scientifically researched so that we can achieve a holistic approach to medicine. I really don’t think ideas like “zen energies” shouldn’t be chalked up to be rubbish simply because there is yet to be a Western perspective’s scientific explanation for them.
February 22nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
The incorrect use of “energy” (see also: “force”) by anyone and everyone who wants to sound spiritual generally pisses me off, they’re scientific terms with clearly defined meanings, but get co-opted to lend a science-y sound to steaming bullshit. As Simon said, if it’s not detectable, not measurable, not perceivable, then it doesn’t exist (or it has no effect on anything – same difference as far as we’re concerned)
The interesting part is when a system of ideas is based on certifiable bull, but gets some results (the Eastern medicine stuff Karen mentioned). Being based on bull doesn’t necessarily preclude it being effective – herbalism might have started out talking about driving out demons, but the chemicals in plants can cure illnesses all the same. That’s essentially early-stage science – observations made, something discovered (that plant X helps condition Y) but attributed to the wrong mechanism. Same with ‘alternative’ medicine, maybe there’s something that works in there, but I’d bet money that it isn’t working by manipulating energy fields to align them with the universe… or whatever, I’m not well versed in the ideas.
The important thing to remember is that the traditional medicine is well tested, proven to be effective… it works and we know how it works, so we can be sure that it actually does work. When we test the alternative theories, either we prove that they work and then find out how (and then they cease to be ‘alternative’ and just become a part of medicine) or we find that they actually don’t work and chalk up another point to the placebo effect.
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:10 pm
I have not read either of the books mentioned above, but I do think that there is some validity to the idea of positive thinking resulting in positive events in life. I’m a big proponent of karma and that what you put out into the world is generally what will come back. It is not a one to one correlation though. It is general overall feedback. If you are generally sending out negativity into the world and then one day you do something nice I don’t think you will automatically have something good come back to you because of that one nice thing. Similarly it is based on all things being relatively normal. In no way can you possibly say that disasters that happen, natural, man made, or otherwise are the fault of the people who have experienced them. This belief, theory, attitude, whatever you would like to refer to it as is simply a general thought. It is by no means scientific, or exact.
Furthermore, I believe that positive people see things in a more positive light. So therefore things that another person may see as a negative doesn’t even phase an optimistic person. And the people you surround yourself with do feed how you view the world. There are plenty of people I have stopped spending my time with because they are too negative, and I found myself feeding into that attitude.
February 24th, 2009 at 5:49 am
As a bilingual, I want to make this very clear to anyone who cannot speak any Asian languages: the word “energy” is a VERY VERY loosely translated term to describe the sort of “energy” that is being referred to in the Laws of Attraction. “Zen energy” itself is a very poor term, but we’ve got nothing else to work with in English. So basing your ideas on the LOA being bullsh*t because of its “misuse of terms” doesn’t hold.
By the way Matt, ancient Eastern medicine isn’t a “sometimes it works” thing. If practiced properly, it’s an “it works reliably” thing, just like the pills that you call “traditional medicine”. Did you not realize that there are scientists in Asia?
And finally, if you’re not actually well-versed in the art of zen, the philosophies of chi, etc.. I encourage you to express your opinion, but please withhold from doing so as though your opinions were fact. You’re only going to spread misinformation like a plague, and the Western world doesn’t need any more misinformed judgments about Eastern culture.
February 24th, 2009 at 9:01 am
Karen, if this “medicine” works so well, and has worked for thousands of years, then surely you can find me a single piece of peer reviewed evidence in support of this? Or maybe you can find me a controlled study of this Zen energy? Any piece of evidence that is NOT an argument from ignorance or an anacdote?
I’ll warn you, I’ve tried and all I came up with are studies debunking the claim, finding statistically non-significant differences no different then what you would expect from chance. The reason it has “stood” for thousands of years is the same reason that religions have “stood” for thousands of years. It’s because they’re not scientific, they HAVE been scientifically disproven and if it’s followers had any kind of academic honesty they wouldn’t follow it anymore. The sole reason woo-woo like this still exists, is because it’s follower blatantly ignore the evidence.
February 24th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Great comic
February 26th, 2009 at 6:30 am
By the way, some counties are using thie secret in their probation programs.
February 26th, 2009 at 7:18 am
@anon:
links?
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:44 am
By the second panel, I knew this was about The Secret! It’s pretty coincidental because my friend just told me about it today and then I come across this comic.
Still, pretty funny, although I’m going to give it a chance.
March 8th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I loved this comic – as someone with chronic pain I get a lot of this sort of shit my way. From “Just think positively! You’ll get better!” to the suggestion that with my acceptance of my new reality (by adapting my life to my abilities) I am ‘refusing to get better’ to the very clear implication that I am making myself ill!
March 10th, 2009 at 3:22 am
to Arwen: props to you. I don’t know what The Secret would say to you about adapting your life to your abilities, but I agree with your choices. It seems like the healthier way – to accept and embrace your circumstances, and to react to what life has thrown at you productively. By accepting and embracing your situation, you ARE thinking positively – those who criticize you, I find, are probably misinterpreting what it means to think positively..
to Alcari: I HAVE to play devil’s advocate – do you read only Western-published text? Are you able to read Confucious in Chinese?
I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t done research into “zen energies”. I’m no specialist. So Alcari, kudos to you for having done the research. But everyone in the Western community needs to understand that “zen energies” isn’t just a single remedy – it’s a way of life. It’s such a cultural phenomenon – and how do you scientifically explain something like that in isolated incidences?
Anyway, I don’t have anything else to say on the matter except that we need to continue keeping an open mind, especially when it has to do with cross-cultural methods. The scientific research on spiritual and metaphysical matters is still very, very young. We can be pleasantly surprised or shocked within the next few decades, for all we know.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Reacting violently to someone who was simply proposing an alternate idea. Go team science.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Though I don’t agree with anything like what your little cartoon guy is saying, I do think that if you’re more positive about things, you try harder and stress less, therefore you get what you want and are happier while you do it. And I believe that the world is FAR too negative. … hence our website.
I’m totally not a hippie though. I just think people can be happier and achieve more if they’re positive and believe they can get what they want. I sure don’t believe that things like the holocaust happen because you’re too negative- but not getting good opportunities in life? Yeah. I think positive thinking has an effect.
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
That just cheered me up a little.
Thanks
May 9th, 2009 at 2:24 am
“those who strive to make their society better will attract the same people with the same aspirations to do so, and therefore they all flourish as a community”
Yet… “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach him to fish, he gets mad at you for making him have to work so hard.”
June 8th, 2009 at 4:45 am
It’s true, if you think positive thoughts things will turn out better, after all, if you think about something more, you are more likely to take actions to further reach what you desire, it can also be noted that more optimists are happy with their lives than pessimists (um, duh). On the other hand, the idea that brain waves affect the world around you is complete BS. Not only are such signals so weak that a radio tower would have over 100 times the effect, but it’d be like sending binary computer code to someone’s brain (which is far more intelligent than nature), there’s just no way for it to be decoded!