As Weebly has transformed from a blogging platform into more of an e-commerce platform, I've been less and less comfortable using it as a home for my blogging. I have no interest in selling products online; I just want to blog about things I find interesting. And I want it to be simple and easy to use.
To that end, I am moving Corybanter to a newer, simpler home on Medium.com. If you've been following me at all here on Weebly, please update your bookmarks accordingly. I will keep my old Corybanter posts here on Weebly for the time being, as a sort of Archive. Check it out!
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[The following was a short essay I published on Facebook Notes (remember those?) back in 2009. I don't remember exactly what caused me to write it, but I think it holds up pretty well.] I’ve recently been reflecting on the popularity of “self-help” philosophy in American culture. You’ve seen it on TV, in bookstores, all over the Internet. Heck, I would venture to say that many churches and other houses of worship have pretty much adopted the language of self-help (Joel Osteen and Rick Warren leap immediately to mind). From Wayne Dyer to L. Ron Hubbard to whoever wrote “The Rules” for relationships several years back, it seems like Americans will grasp for anything that promises to make them wealthy, happy, healthy, better adjusted, sexually potent, et cetera, ad infinitum. And they all claim to be sure-fire, easy, common sense approaches to life. You know the kind of thing: 30 days to a better <fill-in-the-blank>.
I know we’ve all heard the old saying: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And yet, it often seems to me that very few people are applying that principle, when it comes to all of these self-help “programs.” Of course, all the really good self-help gurus (or leaders or experts or whatever they are) are pretty good at mixing a little of the truth with a lot of…well, not the truth. For example, I just picked up a book (for free) by Og Mandino, who was a popular self-help guy for many years. The book is called University of Success, and it mixes Og’s principles with all kinds of “wisdom of the ages”: everything from Ben Franklin to Norman Vincent Peale. In this book, Og lays out his system in ten “semesters,” which he equates in his introduction with four years of college, plus two years of graduate work. Will it take you ten years to get through his semesters? Of course not! He recommends about a week per semester, for a total of ten weeks. At that point, presumably, you will have achieved all your dreams. Bingo. I’m also reminded, of course, of the ever-popular L. Ron Hubbard, and the “Church” of Scientology. Hubbard was more brilliant, in a way, then Mandino or Dyer or any of those guys ever were, because he mixed in all the trappings of a religion with his bizarre self-help philosophies. If you read even a little of the voluminous writing of Hubbard, though, you will see much of the same claims made by all of the self-help people: 100% effectiveness, tremendous success, unlimited potential, blah, blah, blah. As I mentioned above, though, you see the same thing in churches all the time. I can’t count how many people I’ve talked to personally who sound like they’re describing a self-help philosophy, when they talk about their faith: “I’ve been reading this Prayer of Jabez, and it’s helped me find my purpose” or “When I started listening to the Lord, everything just fell into place, and I feel so much happier.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that being happier because of faith is a bad thing. However, when we reduce faith to a system that will bring us success or happiness or anything that is just to make us better, I think we’re not really talking about religion any more, or faith, or God. We’re talking about ME, I, the ever more important SELF. And that’s just the same thing as all the self-help stuff. I know there are those who will read this and think “What is he complaining about?” Believe me, it’s not meant as a complaint, but rather as an observation. I think there’s a tendency that we have (especially in America) to always be looking out for Numero Uno. Maybe if we cared about others a little more, we’d be heading in a better direction. |
Corybantic(adj.) wild and frenzied; from Greek κορυβαντες (Korybantes) Archives
June 2022
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