Creating Freedom

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Raoul Martinez. Creating Freedom

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RAOUL MARTINEZ

Power, Control and the Fight

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Today, those wishing to control their weight are offered a different strategy in The Secret: ‘If you see people who are overweight, do not observe them, but immediately switch your mind to the picture of you in your perfect body and feel it . . . Attracting the perfect weight is the same as placing an order with the catalogue of the universe. You look through the catalogue, choose the perfect weight, place your order, and then it is delivered to you.’25 Byrne’s writing verges on the comical but her message is symptomatic of a powerful trend. The Secret reached the top of the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for 190 weeks. It has been translated into fifty languages and has over 20 million copies in print.26

A modern secular manifestation of the responsibility myth is found in the promise of ‘The American Dream’ – that anyone can become rich and those who do, deserve it, whereas those who don’t only have themselves to blame. Its roots can be found in classical liberalism, the intellectual forerunner of today’s dominant political ideology, neoliberalism. The tendency to hold individuals ultimately responsible for their lot in life was emboldened in the late nineteenth century by the emerging doctrine of Social Darwinism, drawing its inspiration from Darwin’s theory of evolution.

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