What's Sick About "The Secret"

Karl Rove has been accused of many things. Writing the bestseller "The Secret" is not among them. But it would have been a masterstroke had Bush's political brain done it. "The Secret" is a splendid strategy for neutralizing Democratic voters.

And shame on Oprah Winfrey for promoting it.

Thanks largely to Oprah, "The Secret" sits at No. 1 on the so-called nonfiction list. The companion DVD is also flying off the shelves.

"The Secret" contends that anyone can obtain wealth, health or love through the "law of attraction." The law's mechanics are pretty simple: Think about a million dollars, and a million dollars will appear. ("There's a time delay," motivator Lisa Nichols helpfully explains, "so all your thoughts don't become instantly true.") Same deal for finding a soul mate or deliverance from disease. The universe is your catalogue.

The creator is Rhonda Byrne, an Australian TV producer. Byrne enlists a good number of inspiration peddlers, including the formerly respectable John ("Men Are From Mars ...") Gray and "Chicken Soup for the Soul" man Jack Canfield. The audience is overwhelming female, according to Sara Nelson, editor in chief of Publishers Weekly.

"The Secret" draws its wisdom from Romans, Babylonians, Crusaders and rich white men who, we are told, want to keep The Secret to themselves. The great minds from Plato to Einstein are also tapped — as are quantum physics and old-time religion. There's even a genie who says, "Your wish is my command."

Well, a little positive thinking never hurt anyone. And one hesitates to broadly condemn a work that, however silly, gives many women a temporarily lift.

But there's really something evil about "The Secret," and that's its call to civic passivity. The women who truly believe in this — and a shocking number do — may not be your steel-trap intellects, but their sensibilities tend to be liberal.

If there's one thing progressives don't need, it's a media sensation that counsels many of their potential voters to avoid getting involved in political affairs.

"I think Oprah is quite a liberal, and I'm sure she doesn't see this book as a conservative book," Nelson told me. "She's focusing on the touchy-feely part of it."

I agree, but listen to its advice! "The Secret" holds that thinking about bad things happening in the world actually makes those bad things worse.

"Anything we focus on we recreate," says New Age author Hale Dwoskin. "So if we're really angry, for instance at a war that's going wrong or a strike or suffering, we're adding our energy to it."

Canfield writes that "the antiwar movement creates more war."

Well, how would Oprah feel if the world decided to just think nice thoughts about Darfur?

I've long respected Oprah Winfrey for her tough mind and seemingly genuine interest in bettering the lives of women. Her show is about more than overcoming obesity or addiction. Oprah's willingness to interview candidates and spotlight searing issues — such as the tragedy in Darfur — makes her a national political figure.

But then she goes out and hypes a book in which Byrne writes, "When I discovered The Secret, I made a decision that I would not watch the news or read newspapers anymore, because it did not make me feel good."

I appreciate that "The Secret" contains positive messages about gratitude, living in the present and hope — plus the delightful assurance that spreading The Secret won't cause the universe to run out of stuff. "That's the beauty of this," explains metaphysician John Vitale. "We all don't want BMWs."

But the summons to cast off civic responsibility pollutes the whole enterprise. Oprah should know better.

To find out more about Froma Harrop, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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