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Rundown
In this episode we break down the Law of Attraction and “positivity culture,” and critique how they’ve been employed in the support of capital and other oppressive structures. In the second half of the episode, we temper this with a discussion around how we personally (or Mexie more specifically) reconcile our spirituality with anti-capitalist theory and praxis, acknowledging that these are loaded topics and that there will never be a one-size-fits-all answer for everyone.
Sources and Links
- Rhonda Byrne, “The Secret”: https://www.thesecret.tv/
- Rhonda Byrne, “The Power: https://www.amazon.ca/Power-Rhonda-Byrne/dp/1439181780
- Barbara Ehrenreich, “Smile or Die”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJGMFu74a70&t=0s
- Vegan Warrior Princesses Attack!, “Be Grateful! Be Positive! Fuck that Ablest Bullshit”: http://veganwarriorprincessesattack.com/092-be-grateful-be-positive-fuck-that-ableist-bullshit/
- Russel Brand podcast with Rupert Sheldrake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAS-QzWvj8g&t=0s
- Marine’s video on the Law of Attraction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyJ-Fr-7OkI
- Mexie’s video on Precarious Work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgJlsBCmrUA
- Thich Nhat Hanh, “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation”: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767903692/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0767903692&linkCode=as2&tag=theenthubud04-20&linkId=NQ452AG5P4UJNNT3
- Buddhadasa Bikkhu, “Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree”: https://www.amazon.com/Heartwood-Bodhi-Tree-Teaching-Voidness/dp/1614291527/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1513195486&sr=1-2&refinements=p_27%3ABuddhadasa+Bhikkhu
- Buddhadasa Bikkhu Books: https://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ABuddhadasa%20Bhikkhu
- Walpola Rahula, “What the Buddha Taught: Revised and Expanded Edition with Texts from Suttas and Dhammapada”: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802130313/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0802130313&linkCode=as2&tag=theenthubud04-20&linkId=C6RVTSYAWHXV6OMW
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19 thoughts on “3. The Law of Attraction, Spirituality and Anti-Capitalism”
Sheldrake seems to be promoting pseudoscience, lending credence New Agey stuff of which ‘The Secret’ is one of the biggest popular successes. Spirituality can be great, but once it clashes with scientific consensus and empirical reasoning, not so much. Also, some of the discussion ran a bit too close to the no-true-scotsman/X line for my comfort, but that’s a nitpick. Otherwise, I really enjoy and appreciate your podcasts and hope you will continue to explore these interesting topics.
Hi Jen,
Thanks for the input. Glad you like the show despite not fully being sold on this topic. 😉 Happy holidays!
Hey, enjoyed the talk!
Yeah lol, my ‘well of white suburban mom’ has been on about “The law of attraction” and this book for years. (If she was better at english I’d make her listen to this podcast.)
I’ve always been kind of open-minded so Buddist philosophy has appealed to me as well, but not the religious part. Because what I’ve learnt is that Buddism is more of a philosophy, but counts as a religion because of the way that it’s practiced as a religion. I’ve never really called myself religious nor atheist, because I feel like you a lot of the time belive what you want to belive and whenever I’ve felt the need to answer “the big questions” I’ve turned to philosophy. Atm I consider myself an Absurdist (from Albert Camus, meaning I accept “the Absurd”) which has helped me very much in life. While Absudism is more about rebelling against suicide, I find similarities with buddism as absurdism aslo rejects the idea of trying to find meaning through craving more material things and power. I aswell can see similarities with the “posotivity movement” about the whole “make yourself happy through thought” thing, but without absurdism contaning all those negative factors you mentioned with that line of thinking (it’s more about finding meaning in the meaningless and not killing yourself in missery.)
And one thing about the connection between spirituallity and anti-capitalism; there are christian communists who find that connection via Jesus, as to what he preached.
Ok, sorry for the rambling, but anyways keep it up and take care!
Thank you! Agreed that philosophy > religion as an organized practice (which may or may not adhere to the philosophy it preaches). We’ll look more into absurdism, sounds interesting. Finding meaning in the meaninglessness.. has a nice ring. Glad you enjoyed 🙂
This was so good! Sorry to head about your mental health struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts, Mexie. I’ve gone through a lot of that in my life.
I before I got really into socialism, I was a secular buddhist and found it quite beneficial. But then those cursed words of Marx, saying that religion is the opiate of the masses, kept ringing through my head until they won. The buddhist thing appeared to me to be an obstacle in the way of intellectual development and deep introspection that would lead to actively making changes in myself. For example, when I was thinking about Buddhism and spirituality all the time, I didn’t care nearly as much about social justice issues, about reducing inequality and discrimination in the world. I’ve only been moving towards veganism (I’ve been vegetarian for as long as I can recall) since abandoning the buddhist framework.
Anyway, that was just a rant. I love your podcast and you guys are doing great work here!
Take care!
Thank you. I’m sorry that you’ve gone through that struggle too, but glad that you’ve made it through.
And that’s great – I’m glad you found what works for you and that you’re turning your attention to both human and animal liberation :). Thanks for the support!
I’m so glad you guys decided to try tackling the issue of spirituality and how it relates and interacts with anti-capitalism. Mexie, I especially appreciate what you shared in the second half of this episode. You expressed a lot of things that resonate with me and you articulated them very well. It’s the stuff that’s been on my mind lately. Thank you!
Ever since getting into anti-capitalism I have found myself in a personal conflict between “accepting things” and “wanting to change things.” On the one hand, I truly believe that desire creates suffering and, in my own experience, living in the moment and practising radical gratitude and forgiveness has been extremely beneficial both to myself and the people in my life. But I also know that it is important to care about the injustices in the world we live in and try to create change – and in order to have the motivation to create change, we need to remain aware that a lot of the world is actually super fucked up!
I do feel bad when I see people focus on blame or even revenge as the way forward. After dealing with depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem myself, being able to consider bigger reasons which might be behind things and coming to the profound realisation that we are all connected has had an immense effect on my outlook and has helped me to become more empathetic and other-centric. For me, this has translated into a greater desire to transform our systems.
As a side note: I hope you guys don’t conflate “the law of attraction” fad with spirituality in general, since you seemed to devote a lot of time to this single concept (but it certainly fits best with the theme of anti-capitalism). The LOA as we know it is essentially a combination of “spiritual materialism” and “spiritual bypassing.” You may enjoy this take: https://lonerwolf.com/the-law-of-attraction-suffering/
Thank you! I (Mexie) felt like I really wasn’t articulate. What you’re saying about the conflict between accepting things and wanting to change things, between compassion and righteous anger, really resonates with me. I think ultimately we need to think about changing society through activism as well as looking internally and striving to live as compassionately/empathetically as possible. We are all one. <3
And no, we aren't thinking that the law of attraction is a really spiritual practice. We're critiquing how it's sometimes discussed that way. Thanks for the article!
Thank you for this episode, it was super relevant to me and really helped me work through some of the thoughts/feelings that I’ve had regarding radical acceptance and positive thinking.
Thanks, Victoria! We’re so glad it helped <3
One of the most prominent communist figures in Sweden, Kata Dalström (1887-1922), declared (somewhat controversially at the time) that she was a religious person and acctually became a buddist later in life. She was pretty cool
Interesting! Will check out her work.
I really enjoy your podcasts, but, no offense, I think The Secret is as pseudoscientific and unempirical as it can possibly get. They co-opted the idea of quantum mechanics and applied it to the real world which is a bullshit new-age move (like that other movie. What the Bleep Do We Know). Why would empirical, rational women like you even bother to discuss such absurdity? Its positive thoughts = more likely chance to feel good and get better results. There is no science behind it. Its just common sense.
Instead of discussing such ludicrous concepts, I would be more interested in you discussing things such as Peter Joseph and the Zeitgeist Movement as well as the antinatalist movement of people like David Benatar (“The Trouble With Being Born).
I am an atheist and as materialistic and scientific as one can get, and I fully agree with you about capitalism and veganism, but conflating these crucial subjects with such nonsense as The Secret is just making me nauseous.
Ok it came out a bit harsh. Apologies 🙂 I just really hate this cult of positive thinking (reminds me of the cult of capitalism, neoliberalism, etc) and I let my emotions show. Although, please, if you can, please discuss Peter Joseph as well as David Benatar 🙂
Thanks for the comment! We do have an episode about antinatalism, episode number 13. We’ll likely tackle the Zeitgeist movement in the future too 🙂
I recently stumbled upon this podcast and the YT channels so I still haven’t had the chance to listen to all of them. My bad 😉 Looking forward to your next episodes!
Small correction: “The Trouble With Being Born” is Cioran, not Benatar. And while it’s often cited as antinatalist literature, it’s also antiphilosophy, meaning that it would shit on Benatar’s moral philosophy too.
Hey Mexie and Marine, I recently discovered both your channels and podcast and have been catching up on all your great content. THANK YOU! I can relate so much not only to your views, but the frustration and despondency that can result from living in a society that seems so at odds with reality… so its really a relief to find activists who are working with so much integrity.
FYI Mexie, I know you live in Toronto, do you know about the Center of Gravity Sangha? I’ve never personally been so I can’t speak to it, but its a yogic/buddhist center specifically geared towards social action and applying spiritual principles to social justice (if interested check out “Yoga For a World Out of Balance” by Michael Stone, who founded the sangha). I completely agree about Buddhism and other traditions of eastern philosophy, which in my opinion, go much deeper into the sources of and solutions for violence and greed than Marx ever did.
Thanks again! 🙂
Thanks so much, Julia. <3 And I haven't checked out the centre yet, thanks for the info! I'll read the Michael Stone book.