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| Oprah's Harpo-Clones smiling all the way to the bank as they move to OWN (Oprah's Worry Network) |
A FALSE CARROT IN FRONT OF A REAL DONKEY?
In case you don't know this medical wizard from the Emerald Green Mountain of Money called Harpo Studios (Oprah's mega-corporation) he is one of the several Oprah clones who are about to migrate to OWN, the Oprah Winprey Network, now in its second day of existence.
This constellation of clones (ever-increasing constellation, I might add, like Oprah's bank account) includes these make-over moguls:
- Dr. Phil: Make-over your personality
- Nate Berkus: Make-over your home
- Dr. Oz: Make-over your body
- Suze Orman Make-over your finances
- Dr. Laura Berman Make-over your sex life
Do you see a pattern here?
It is the same pattern which undergirds ALL of television advertising:
YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH AS YOU ARE :
(BUY THIS PRODUCT AND YOU WILL BE BETTER).
The sad irony is that Oprah's genius for attracting an audience is that she recognizes the great lesson Willy Loman had been teaching us since Arthur Miller's famous "Salesman" committed suicide; materialism is an empty value system, an economic lie--- the America's Dream is a mirage, a false carrot in front of a real donkey:
"Figure it out. Work your lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it and there's nobody to live in it" (Miller, p. 4); or another Willy Loman lament later in the play, "Once in my life, I would like to own something outright before it is broke! I'm always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it's on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they're used up." (p. 54)
Oprah says her network is dedicated to "Being the Best You can Be." I might edit that phrase to read :"BUYING the Best You can Be."
And for shopping STARTERS?
Buy the ORPAH WORRY NETWORK !
(OWN*)
Even more sad is the fact that Oprah is unquestionably sincere. I believe she thinks she can fill the emptiness of consumerism with the proper dose of consumerism, like Dr. Salk's famous polio vaccine immunized against polio by administering a mild dose of polio.
But the logic is against her: You can't FILL emptiness with more emptiness.
Maybe that's why Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now and a co-lecturer with Oprah on a free course she offered on-line dealing with that famous self-help book, has not become another satellite orbiting around the magnetic pull of planet O: There is no Eckhart Tolle Show.
Yet.
Perhaps that's because he understands that the material and spiritual are mutually exclusive, that make-overs are superficial: That the spiritual requires not a make-OVER, but a make-UNDER.
On the the hand, it may simply be that he has a face that isn't telegenic.
It won't sell.
_______________________________________
* It is worth noting here that in Toni Morrison's novel Song of Solomon, Macon Dead II gives his son Macon Dead III (AKA Milkman for unconventional, incestuous reasons) two words of advice about life---and ONLY two words:"Own things."
(OWN*)
Even more sad is the fact that Oprah is unquestionably sincere. I believe she thinks she can fill the emptiness of consumerism with the proper dose of consumerism, like Dr. Salk's famous polio vaccine immunized against polio by administering a mild dose of polio.
But the logic is against her: You can't FILL emptiness with more emptiness.
Maybe that's why Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now and a co-lecturer with Oprah on a free course she offered on-line dealing with that famous self-help book, has not become another satellite orbiting around the magnetic pull of planet O: There is no Eckhart Tolle Show.
Yet.
Perhaps that's because he understands that the material and spiritual are mutually exclusive, that make-overs are superficial: That the spiritual requires not a make-OVER, but a make-UNDER.
On the the hand, it may simply be that he has a face that isn't telegenic.
It won't sell.
_______________________________________
* It is worth noting here that in Toni Morrison's novel Song of Solomon, Macon Dead II gives his son Macon Dead III (AKA Milkman for unconventional, incestuous reasons) two words of advice about life---and ONLY two words:"Own things."
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