The permeation of The Secret-style bullshit never ceases to amaze me, but we now have it coming from Dr. Shunichi Yamashita, head of a Fukushima health study being conducted to appease concerned Japanese citizens. Yamashita chastises citizens who are taking readings, finding high levels of radioactivity and then demanding answers from government officials, telling people that happy, happy good thoughts are the only things necessary to keep them safe from radiation poisoning.
"The effects of radiation do not come to people that are happy and laughing. They come to people that are weak-spirited, that brood and fret," Yamashita says.
So don't worry, true believers. As per usual, you are immune to any and all problems of the human condition as long as you repeat your New Age idioms religiously and look the other way like good little enlightened ones. You're way too far up the spiritual hierarchy Ladder to Ascension to suffer any of the indignities being brought down on the unenlightened/denser/lower-vibrating on this planet.
Don't worry about those "weak-spirited, brooding, fretting" people you see all around you. They'll stop being such downers soon, as their negative thought patterns create cancer and other radiation-related diseases. Can't say you didn't warn them!
It's amazing to see how this crap is rolled out like clockwork. Every time a purposefully orchestrated disaster is brought down, there it is. Like everything New Age, it's old snake oil, but there is always a new crop of self-important true believers willing to lap it up in times of crisis.
After the American Civil War (also orchestrated), the working poor were languishing in absolutely hideous conditions, working back-breaking jobs 12 to 16 hours a day for not enough money even to feed and clothe themselves and their families.
As Howard Zinn tells it in A People's History of the United States, Yale graduate (ie. certainly not of the working class) minister and best-selling author Russell Conwell (could you even make up a better name?) made the rounds giving a lecture called "Acres of Diamonds." It was all about how everyone could become rich if they tried hard enough - that there were fields of diamonds just waiting for anyone willing to work hard to obtain them and if you were not rich, it was some deficiency in character or work ethic, not, oh, I don't know, a system of economic slavery set up and reinforced by those with power, wealth and resources.
From Conwell's speech:
"I say that you ought to get rich, and it is your duty to get rich...The men who get rich may be the most honest men you find in the community. Let me say here clearly...ninety-eight out of one hundred of the rich men of America are honest. That is why they are rich. That is why they are trusted with money. That is why they carry on great enterprises and find plenty of people to work with them. It is because they are honest men...I sympathize with the poor, but the number of poor who are to be sympathized with is very small. To sympathize with a man whom God has punished for his sins...is to do wrong...Let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings."
So this is coming out of the late 1800s when Blavatsky and the New Age doctrine were first getting their legs. You can see the parallels in ideology.
Reads like parody in this Pluto in Capricorn Age, doesn't it?
16 comments:
"As Howard Zinn tells it in A People's History of the United States, Yale graduate (ie. certainly not of the working class), minister and best-selling author Russell Conwell (could you even make up a better name?) made the rounds giving a lecture called "Acres of Diamonds."
God but I f*cking love your writing!
But Willow, ugh, didn't Conwell realize that if everyone became rich, then no one would truly be rich? Duh, I say to him. Duh.
-Deb
Here is something else to reveal to all.sott.net.Type potitical ponerology -the science of evil.Know these bastardos..otherwise known as psychopaths..the minority that rule our planet..after being married to one..and having my life destroyed..after knowing they have no soul..I say eliminate/disarm them all..I have no guilt-they have no souls..they prey on us..It is us or them..quit being nice..many of us are in a stockholmn syndrome.do you understand?..a minority has enslaved and abused us..there is no treaty..no peace...we want to save us..our mother earth...kauai
I've only had to reject one comment so far from a New Ager telling me I'm only rejecting this "positive message" because I'm carrying too much pain and need some of his/her New Age healing techniques.
Not bad.
Thank you for posting this! SOMEONE has to say it and tell the truth!
I used to dabble in the New Age stuff until I realized how sick and disgusting some of it can be.
I had questions like what about - American Slavery, the Holocaust? Is is the fault of those in Dafur/Bosnia/Congo because they are not thinking the "right thoughts"?
You don't want to know the "New Age" answers.
I think this is a new low to tell the people of Japan this.
Oh, yes, I know the New Age answers, and they are "positively" demonic!
I'm appalled by the degree to which this insidious New Age crap has infiltrated our society. Everything is now "our fault" because of our thoughts and not being "happy" all the time. Does anyone seriously believe that radiation poisoning will not affect you if you "think happy thoughts?" WTF?
I can see why we have a hard time actually working to resolve our social, economic, ecological problems when the New Age crap just encourages people to stay happy and ignore them. Denial. Total denial.
And the power-mongers are eager to spread around the New Age tripe because it disempowers people and allows them to carry on as usual.
*shaking head*
Completely agree.
It's so back assward, too. Like, instead of being angry and in pain due to the horrendous crap constantly being brought down (purposefully) on humanity, I'm somehow creating all these crimes against life on this planet BECAUSE I'm angry and in pain?
In what fucked up world does that illogic make sense?
A world where those bringing this stuff down have people hoodwinked into blaming themselves for it, I guess. With a New Age army of followers ready and willing to reinforce it.
And then instead of difficult feelings being considered perfectly natural under these circumstances (because...news flash...THEY ARE), I'm made to feel as if I'm somehow deficient because I feel this way?
It's pure insanity, but they're SO good at the game, even I start to doubt myself at times after hearing their silver-tongued schpiels. So what chance do people have who can't even recognize this stuff, you know?
Send your suggestions on nuclear disaster management to the Japanese government here:
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/index-e.html (Prime Minister's blog)
http://www.env.go.jp/en/ (Ministry of the Environment)
http://www.jaea.go.jp/english/misc/contactus.shtml (Japan Atomic Energy Agency)
Or you could donate to the Red Cross: www.redcross.ca or www.humanitariancoalition.ca~
Lots of ways to help people suffering! The Canadian Red Cross is helping Canadians deal with flood damage, too.
"And then instead of difficult feelings being considered perfectly natural under these circumstances (because...news flash...THEY ARE), I'm made to feel as if I'm somehow deficient because I feel this way?"
This is the Anon from 6/15 @ 6:55. I am so glad that someone else on this earth "gets it"!
In 2007 I was ripped off for 20k by a "spiritual mentor". The other "spiritual people" I connected with in the immediate aftermath of the con were trying to chastise me for being angry about it.
At one point I was told I needed to just let it go... I am like this is 20k! I am not rich, but I was so duped and willing to make a huge sacrifice for spiritual evolution.
It has taken me all of 4 years to take the sting out of that hurt. I am still upset about it and I hope the con gets everything coming to them, but I was galled at how people felt it was ok to berate me to tell me how I should feel about losing 20,000.00.
I had a friend who was coming to terms with her past of rape/sexual abuse. She was going through a tough period and needed to disclose to people. She was repeatedly told she needed to forgive and that if women who had been infibulated could forgive - why couldn't she?
My aunt had inoperable brain cancer which she died of. When she was in the hospital she was surrounded by nuts who tried to suppress her anger, rage, fear - you name it.
I could go on and on.
I don't care what anyone says, feelings are normal and natural - even the not so nice ones. Just because you have a dark feeling - that doesn't mean that you will or are compelled to act on it.
Pretending they don't exist is crap.
This New Age stuff just amounts to a whole bunch of victim blaming.
Dear Willow,
I enjoy your writings very much. My heart is heavy and I'm saddened by the ongoing holocaust on our environment and its effect on all life. It is almost too much to bear. If I wouldn't take my mind off this for most of the time, I wouldn't be able to function 'normally'. When I try to talk to others about these things, for the most part they won't really get involved, because they think they can't change anything anyway and also because they're too complacent (another issue that might come into focus with Jupiter in Taurus).
On another note: on the winter solstice last december we had a Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse, not a New Moon/Solar Eclipse. I hope you don't mind me pointing this out. These typos happen to all of us.
Verena
thanks for demonstrating so clearly how close New Age BS about 'attracting wealth' is to right-wing condemnation of the poor. After all, if those pesky paupers would just think the right happy wealthy thoughts, they wouldn't be languishing at the bottom of the corporate pile, would they? I also laugh my proverbial arse off at the New Age idea that everyone can be rich in Western societies increasingly built on the subjugation of the 'flexible workforce'...
Anon 5:34...I'm so sorry you lost that money and then had those yahoos telling you to "let it go." Yes, wouldn't they all just love that? Grr! It makes me very cross, as my grandmother would say.
You are definitely not alone. That's how the entire New Age pyramid scheme works, whether they're stealing money or energy or minds.
I'm not sure if you know about the James Arthur Ray case (The Secret guru)? He pilfered hundreds of thousands of dollars from people and then set up insane "retreats" with faulty sweat lodges (white men can't sweat lodge), and three people actually died. He bullied people into "pushing past their boundaries" and staying in there for too long without proper ventiliation.
http://willowsweb.blogspot.com/search/label/james%20arthur%20ray
I find it absolutely repugnant how they try to hijack people's emotions. Experiencing and processing difficult emotion is a natural process and a really important one, and for them to interfere in people's lives at such intimate moments is just wrong.
Thanks for catching those mistakes, Verena! I've corrected them in the post.
I think when faced with the overwhelming consequences of others' actions as we are now - especially the actions of unaccountable, inhumane corporate and governmental agendas worldwide - the act of staying with it, staying on top of it, keeping aware of what is going on on a deep level actually IS doing something. I think applied consciousness is very important and that it catalyzes change at a certain point. This is why the diversions from what is really going on are so detrimental. We can make changes in our personal lives up to a certain point, but we don't control other people. We don't control corporations. So being a conscious accountability watchdog and looking for the things we CAN do is an important role. Things stem from that.
Yes, Ruth, no kidding! Pretty difficult to rise off the bottom rungs when they're built right into "the way the whole shitshow works." Not to mention the boot in the face keeping people down there.
"Anon 5:34...I'm so sorry you lost that money and then had those yahoos telling you to "let it go." Yes, wouldn't they all just love that? Grr! It makes me very cross, as my grandmother would say."
Thank you Willow. You have been the only person thus far who has validated my feelings about this whole thing. I usually don't tell anyone out of shame that I have been so majorly swindled. So I appreciate that from you.
"I'm not sure if you know about the James Arthur Ray case (The Secret guru)? He pilfered hundreds of thousands of dollars from people and then set up insane "retreats" with faulty sweat lodges (white men can't sweat lodge), and three people actually died. He bullied people into "pushing past their boundaries" and staying in there for too long without proper ventiliation."
I saw that on the news and how he also refused to allow some to have medical treatment. He is a cruel sob.
Another thing that makes me angry is how leaders in these groups refuse to police one another. Or come out and condemn a fellow "leader" when they know they are off the deep end or basically hustling people.
"I find it absolutely repugnant how they try to hijack people's emotions. Experiencing and processing difficult emotion is a natural process and a really important one, and for them to interfere in people's lives at such intimate moments is just wrong."
Agreed.
i know this post is kind of old, but i love it so much. Thanks for saying it like it is, Willow.
Oh, and that last quoted excerpt is so vile.
It truly is. I was just thinking about how the majority of people still hold some form of that thinking - that if you are in poverty, it's because you're lazy, stupid, leeching off society, etc. There's still very little understanding of the workings of the manufactured class/power system that underpins the whole economic structure...
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