Capitalism, Consumerism, and Individualism: Investigating the Rhetoric of <em>The Secret</em>

I am investigating a New Age spiritual movement called the Law of Attraction that has been the source of recent media attention due to the recent publication of a self-help book called The Secret. The book investigates this phenomenon, which is a theory that takes positive thinking to the extreme. The theory states that reality can be literally manifested through one's thoughts. I am interested in this trend because it supports consumerist values, entrepreneurship, and self-actualization while using socialist rhetoric to promote capitalist values. I am also interested in the implications that this rhetoric holds for women and marginalized groups. I will investigate how the theory draws on quotes from spiritual leaders, famous scientists, and revered world figures and abstracts their meanings by placing them in a paradigm for their own use. I will also look at how they use the authority of science and an appeal to traditionally Christian language to promote blind faith in this principle. I will look at how this movement positions consumerism and consumption as a means of self-actualization and spiritual salvation and analyze how the theory lends itself to the ideals of capitalism. Finally, I will emphasize how the Law of Attraction disregards women and marginalized groups by ignoring systemic restrains by focusing only on the power of the individual with a blatant disregard for social institutions and systems. This project will be a textual rhetorical analysis that will incorporate an ethnographic study, textual analysis, and a critical theoretical approach to theory. The goal of this project is to interrogate a contemporary self-help and New Age spiritual movement that is symptomatic of the contemporary preoccupation with self-actualization and the discourse of positive-thinking.

Grantor dc:publisher

Digital Commons @ University of South Florida

Year dc:date

2008

Author dc:creator

• Fernandez, Carolina

• New Age spirituality
• The Law of Attraction
• Abstraction
• Positive Thinking
• Conservatism
• American Studies
• Arts and Humanities

Statement dc:rights

• default

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/237

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.usf.edu:etd-1236