Waiting in a restaurant for girlfriends to arrive the other night, I just couldn’t resist: I had to watch the chilling teaser for the documentary on Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes one more time.
asserted
I → wait → Holmes
Her claims of a diagnostic tool that could detect a spectrum of health issues with a single pinprick of blood led Forbes in 2014 to name her the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, heading a company then valued at $US9 billion.
uncertain
that → detect → billion
Only problem, the machine never worked and she knew it.
asserted
she → work → it
Shoddy blood testing ensued, putting thousands in danger.
asserted
testing → ensue → danger
Holmes is currently serving 10 years for fraud.
asserted
Holmes → serve → fraud
Watch the clip and it’s evident Holmes still will not acknowledge failure.
asserted
Holmes → watch → failure
Her single-minded self-belief is so all-encompassing, she is immune to the reality that the idea is a dud.
asserted
idea → encompass → reality
She appears clearly delusional – I’ll go as far as deranged – and it’s kinda scary.
asserted
it → appear → ?
I decided to scroll on to some light entertainment diversion and stumbled across a piece on Jennifer Aniston’s new boyfriend Jim Curtis.
asserted
I → decide → boyfriend
I wouldn’t normally give a flying who Aniston dates – I wish her only happiness – but a description of Curtis’ profession as a hypnotherapist and life coach piqued my interest.
asserted
description → give → interest
“Here we go”, I thought, and into the rabbit hole I dived, reading excerpts from Curtis’ latest tome, The Book of Possibility, and watching his affirmation videos urging me to “call in” yellow butterflies through thought and they will appear for me in abundance.
asserted
they → go → abundance
Soon I was murmuring “fraud”.
asserted
I → murmur → fraud
My reaction was visceral and I understood why.
asserted
I → understand → ?
I’d seen this bull before in the early 2000s, and it didn’t end well then.
asserted
it → see → 2000s
Fast-forward to Elizabeth Holmes and it appears it still doesn’t.
asserted
it → forward → Holmes
Before my friends could even take a sip when they finally arrived, I was off, lamenting that, like bad fashion, claptrap comes back.
uncertain
claptrap → take → fashion
Curtis’ schtick is little more than a limp reboot of Rhonda Byrne’s 2006 phenomenon The Secret, repackaged by a man with good hair, superstar partner and zero credentials.
asserted
schtick → repackage → hair
The Secret, I explained, espouses the “law of attraction”: what you think, you get.
asserted
you → explain → what
If you stay positive, focus on goals, ignore self-doubt and criticism, and visualise and concentrate, anything you desire will be yours.
asserted
you → stay → doubt
The obvious counter is that anything that doesn’t go to plan in life is also your fault: you didn’t want it enough.
asserted
you → go → it
Ironic, considering its premise is self-belief.
asserted
premise → consider → ?
Mid-rant, I realised I hadn’t read the room.
asserted
I → realise → room
My friends were staring as if I’d just plucked Tinkerbell’s wings.
asserted
I → star → wings
Clearly offended, they politely made it clear that they believed the law of attraction message was positive, quite beautiful and ultimately harmless, and they applied it in their own lives to great effect.
asserted
they → offend → effect
I was outnumbered.
asserted
I → outnumber → ?
I needed Mark Manson.
asserted
I → need → Manson
Proving I am not self-help averse, I happily admit to reading most of Manson’s bestselling books, starting with 2016’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.
asserted
I → prove → F*ck
I respect his grounded life-view, relatable humour and solid sensible advice.
asserted
I → respect → view
And I clearly remember reading a piece he penned at peak “law of attraction” fervour – hard not to with the headline The Staggering Bullshit of The Secret.
asserted
he → remember → Secret
It frames entitlement as virtue and desires as destiny, that good fortune is a given and not a gift.
asserted
fortune → frame → destiny
Something had always irked me about The Secret and my friends’ cult-like devotion that divided believers and sceptics (guess my camp).
asserted
that → irk → camp
I felt there was something dark lurking within its sunny premise of positivity.
asserted
I → feel → positivity
Manson, who has described manifestation as the worst self-help strategy, nailed what that was bluntly.
asserted
that → describe → strategy
The Secret, he wrote, “brings a harrowing narcissism and an ‘I’m the centre of the universe’ angle to the same old ideas …
asserted
I → write → ideas
It’s a playbook for entitlement and self-absorption and I think that anybody who reads it and implements its advice in any serious way will likely make themselves worse off in the long run.
asserted
themselves → ’ → run
Told you he was direct.
asserted
he → tell → you
And while I am not quite as dismissive as Manson, he illuminated my law of attraction gripe: it’s all want and no give.
asserted
it → illuminate → gripe
It frames entitlement as virtue and desires as destiny, that good fortune is a given and not a gift.
asserted
fortune → frame → destiny
And it discounts what I find truly magical in life: serendipity, coincidence, chance, altruism and hope.
asserted
I → discount → serendipity
Psychologists, philosophers and social critics such as Barbara Ehrenreich – who wrote Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America – also back the view that The Secret frames the universe as a giant cosmic vending machine where external realities and others’ needs are minimised.
asserted
realities → write → machine
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
