The Self Help Industry Will Never Solve Culture Issues. Here’s Why
Those at the top prefer to keep the focus on individual growth rather than the betterment of everyone.
The self-improvement industry is pretty broken and anyone who spends even a year or two looking at it can tell some major flaws. Mark Manson — one of the best self-help gurus around — wrote 5 major problems with the industry itself. However I’d like to expand on that list to cover one other prominent problem that I’ve noticed. A sort of pattern amongst some prominent individuals within this industry that make this industry into what it is today:
The self-improvement industry is so focused on individualism, it can’t benefit society as a whole.
The biggest reason I was interested in self-improvement in the first place is the idea that as you are helping yourself, you are helping others in return. Through advice, products, and services, you are lifting other people from their own situations to make them better.
It’s understandable that these avenues are going to have flaws — Mark Manson pointed out many of those problems in the article above. However he glossed over another issue. An issue that another writer on here mentioned last year about her criticism to the self-help.
That the industry doesn’t really focus on bigger world issues like race or gender identity.
She has a point.
We desperately need to talk about it, however the deck is stacked against us in this regard. Those in the industry would prefer the focus to be on individual achievement and problems. Things like figuring out the best morning routine, yoga poses, what kind of coffee to drink or chair to help your posture, and so on.
We focus on these slight issues which are important, but we shy away from the idea of talking about race, gender equality, ways to help poor people and so on.
And sure, some can argue that by working on these small things can help the bigger picture, but they’re not really. Especially since not everyone wants to grow a platform revolving around the belief that gay and trans people are awesome people and we should appreciate them as who they are.
Instead, many of the prominent platforms are designed in a specific manner that encourages more regressive thinking. It makes me wonder why the industry is so focused on those issues when in some cases these larger issues can present problems to people doing their everyday stuff. For example:
- If the planet becomes worse to the point it’s difficult to breathe, people aren’t going to be able to go for those morning jogs or walks you recommend them to do.
- If the environment is also in danger, trying to find a forest to meditate in or just walk around isn’t going to help with stress or process emotions.
- Someone can’t be productive if they have to work two or three jobs and a boss that refuses to give raises and continues to exploit workers.
- It’s going to be hard to date or have a functioning relationship if you’re oblivious to some behaviours being toxic or misogynistic.
The industry isn’t talking about these things or even hinting at them because it’s all by design. It all starts with the people at the top who inspire others to follow and think the same way. Even if that view is wrong or isn’t keeping up with the way the world has changed, these individuals have built a “self-help” brand built around a rigid structure that isn’t meant to change.
And when it clashes with the way of the world — a view that is constantly changing — it creates friction.
Of course people make mistakes and views of some people are not going to be in agreement. But as you can tell from the overall structure of self-help, it’s causing more damage and the people at the top that have accumulated millions of dollars and supporters prefer to keep it that way.
The Self-Improvement Industry Has Religious Undertones
To understand the full scope, context needs to be given. It all starts with religion — an organized group of people believing in some divine being. One that has gaps in it logic.
And by design, self-improvement has had those same kind of characteristics. There isn’t a God or Jesus, but there are people who believe in a higher self. An Almighty entity that replaces God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
And there are several prominent self-help gurus that have religious beliefs or religious undertones. For example, Dr. Jordan Peterson has quoted the bible in one of his books. This is on top of him obsessing over the story of Cain and Abel and other biblical stories.
And there are some other connections that are like that which I don’t chalk up to as coincidences. In the end, the point is religion and self-improvement do have similiarities.
But the more important connection is that religion can develop into cults.
The Rise Of Status In The Industry Is Created Through Cults/Fanboyism
When looking at some of the prominent individuals in this industry, they focus heavily on a particular way of thinking. They continuously push that agenda and don’t entertain other thoughts or ideas that would shatter or question that reality.
Obviously, we all have biases and beliefs and the experiences that we’ve gone through are all different from one another. But what connects us to any prominent individual in this industry stems from what it is that they stand for. Common themes and patterns that resonate with us.
But what’s so interesting about this industry is how the people around them almost have fanatic tendencies. People that swear by this person’s work and will defend them at any cost.
Obviously people have fans, but in the case of the self-improvement industry some fans are more eager to defend these people. I know a particular female writer on this platform receives death threats on the regular. This is on top of some fans never dropping the fact she called out this prominent self-improvement writer for not spreading awareness about a life threatening and misunderstood medical condition that she’s working through. This prominent self-improvement writer is a big name writer on this platform.
He event went as far as to say some of his mistreatment on this issue is equalvalent to Holocaust victims.
And you see echoes of that in other spaces and it depends on the kind of person who is at the top:
- Dr. Jordan has been viewed in a religious manner. He’s been asked if he’s a prophet before. One of his colleagues in the University of Toronto commented that he “sounds like a preacher than a teacher.”
- Tony Robbins has stated plenty of times he’s Christian. It wouldn’t put it past me that he thinks his speaking gigs are akin to a mega church — him being the preacher and the crowd his congregation.
These individuals have been propped up because they’ve been able to focus on a specific messaging that anyone can get behind. The problem is the messaging is flawed — similar to cults. There will be some truths sprinkled at the beginning to get people in, but as you’re pulled deeper, the more convoluted things seem to become.
For example, one of the biggest criticisms for Tony Robbin’s work is that it only helps white people. His advice isn’t really tailored for a black audience at all. And it makes sense because Robbin’s at 17 was taken under the wing of Jim Rohn. Once he hit his 20s, he was famous. He understands emotions for sure, but the advice doesn’t always fit the situation.
In one of his recent books Unshakeable he focuses on financial advice. One piece is to invest in index funds. While the advice is helpful, it’s not helpful if you’re someone barely making over minimum wage and struggling to live.
It’s here where you begin to see more flaws and the bigger picture as to why self-improvement is currently incapable of dealing with these larger issues.
Those Who Have The Power In This Industry Aren’t Taking Self-Improvement Principles To Heart
The problem with a cult is that the leader isn’t bound to change. Especially when they rise to the top and accumulate wealth and power from their followers. It’s hard to change when you’ve gotten all of these things from focusing on a specific ideology.
You’re incentivized to not change and to double down on the same talking points. Even if those talking points are flawed, tone deaf, and make you look like an idiot.
We see this all the time in politics especially. There are many people in the American conservative movement who have tried to appeal to the far-right MAGA crowd, while at the same time not liking what the movement has become.
In self-improvement it’s not so different.
A big example is Dr. Jordan which this “brief” review of him underlines a lot about him. The short version of that is Dr. Jordan is a large supporter of hierarchies — even though he says he isn’t. And that rigidity and his technique that he’s formed over the years has made him look stupid in the face of a number of different topics ranging from gay rights to climate change and wage equality.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion of course — even if that opinion is wrong — but there has to be more care and consideration made in different contexts.
Dr. Jordan is now viewed as an “expert” and has claimed he’s an evolutionary biologist amongst other things. Even though his only education is as a psychiatrist and a teacher of psychology as that video clearly points out.
In self-improvement it’s especially worse if you’re not changing your stance or being open to different views. Isn’t self-improvement all about growing and changing?
It gets even worse when that video reveals that Dr. Jordan firmly keeps his hierarchy views and that he also enjoys the idea of nazism without outwardly saying he does.
And then you realize that he is the head of a self-help cult, spouting that belief over and over again.
And you see echoes of this in the richest self-help gurus around on many different topics:
- Deepak Chopra founded the Chopra Foundation and help spread meditation into the world. This can be helpful, but the Chopra Foundation has been on the record to state that meditation is the cure for cancer. They’ve gone as far as to create educational videos on the subject. It’s giving me some televangelist vibes.
- Dr. Laura Schlessinger wrote plenty of self-help books and focused on marriage and family councilling. She had a radio show as well called The Dr. Laura Show for a while. It moved to another Radio broadcast after she dropped a racial slur and scoffed at the idea of interracial marriage. If she thinks interracial marriage is so terrible, it’s not much of a stretch to think her stance on the LGBTQ community and gay marriage is similar. In fact, she “apologized” about that too. What a coincidence.
- James Arthur Ray made appearances on Oprah and the Larry King Show as well as being part of the film The Secret. He’s a motivational speaker but in 2011 was caught operating a questionable sweat lodge and was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced to prison for 2 years. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say he doesn’t like the idea of paying fair wages, and is all for capitalism.
- Tony Robbins has had some issues in the past with abuse and sexual misconduct as well.
If there is a problem, you’re supposed to change. You’re supposed to grow. That’s the point of this industry. If you’re expecting people to change and develop, you must equally do that. You can’t just apologize or mitigate the damage when you’re being called out for stuff.
You need to own it, and look at yourself and try to understand the other side. You can still maintain your own views, but you shouldn’t deny or squash or dismiss the idea that you’re wrong or could be wrong about something.
The thing about life is that different things work for different people. For example, I’m not too keen on fasting, even though I’m fully aware people swear by it and I have a few people I know that do a little bit of it. Beyond that, we all have flaws and will never be perfect beings.
But the issue with these particular people is they are firmly sticking to who they are and pretend nothing is wrong.
Going back to Dr. Jordan, he has been banned from Twitter after dead naming Elliot Page. Instead of deleting the tweet — like any sensible person would do — he went on a 15 minute video tirade to defend his decision where he was spouting complete and utter nonsense.
Dr. Jordan said in the video he’d rather die than to remove a tweet — something that would take literal seconds to do. I feel that represents a lot of these other prominent self-improvement gurus ideologies to some extent. They would rather stay the same than to change because the old days are what brought them to this privileged position in the first place.
And any change to that system is a perceived threat to their work and that they shouldn’t back down. They should vehemently believe in their “higher self” who doesn’t change at all now that they’ve reached the top and think they are the best version of themselves.
How This Ties Into The Bigger Societal Picture
With these particular points laid out, it’s easy to connect them and see the bigger picture. The reason many of the larger social issues aren’t being discussed as much is because those at the top want to keep it that way.
And the people at the bottom are kept under wraps whenever they bring this up.
And they can keep it repressed pretty well as cults are incredibly powerful and effective at focusing on a specific message.
All of this makes sense when you connect the dots. Many prominent self-help gurus have some kind of religious affiliation:
- Zig Ziglar was a speaker in Christian Values. Based on the name it has religious undertones though probably not a hateful religious group.
- Chicken Soup for the soul is similar to Christian Values. It has religious undertones (even if the editor-in-chief denies it) and became popular thanks to motivational speaker and self-help guru Jack Canfield.
- Dr. Laura’s views on gay and interracial marriage are similar to the views of conservative religion and evangelical views.
- Again Deepak Chopra’s view on cancer is treating it the same way a televanglist would cure any physical ailment.
Just like religion, some good is going to come out of it. We’ve had self-help gurus talk all the time how their work changed someone’s perspective on things or brought them out of a dark state. However this developed a faith or belief in that person and made them into a follower. And the leader’s beliefs can be flawed:
- Deepak Chopra dismissing medical research, suggesting he doesn’t care much for science.
- Dr. Laura dismissing the idea of gay and interracial issues. This would put a damp on discussions about race, gay rights, and acceptance of people. It would also elevate racism, misogyny (potentially), and white supremacy.
- Dr. Jordan’s outward nihilism to climate change, gay rights, and wage equality dampens discussions on the changes being made to those things and further enforces that what we have is better than whatever “change” brings.
These individuals have massive platforms and they are using it to mislead or misdirect people into a specific view. A view that is more restrictive and is tone deaf from where the world is changing and trying to become.
And it’s effective because people resonate with some of those ideas. Even if some of the basis of those beliefs is rooted in a disbelief in science, racism, sexism, transphobia or nazism.
Those who defend these people would then work to continue to spread the message around. This is despite the fact that they have no clue what they’re talking about or are dead wrong. But instead of adapting when they are confronted about this behaviour— and asking their leader to adapt — they refuse to do so. This only muddies the water for any tangible change and real conversation.
And that is the point.
What many of these prominent people are pushing is the idea that these new and more open and accepting changes are terrible. They’re a plague for whatever reason and that it’s better to go back to the way things were. That the old ways are better.
And sure they might not be donating money to specific causes that enforce that ideology, but they are still supporting it through their massive platform. They are still writing books — and their older books are still being read — that push a specific view.
They’re not adapting. They refuse to see the flaw in their logic. They’re in too deep into this belief and they’re more incentivized to stick to that than to embrace the fundamentals of self-improvement and make tangible changes.
This all gets passed down to their followers who would “grow” to think just like them and refuse to change afterwards.
Until the day these individuals change, it’s up to others to pick up the mantel and make changes. This is difficult to do as many of us have much smaller platforms to work with. Not to mention that some of us are still pushing similar ideologies that I’ve mentioned above.
It feels like the industry is stuck in this loop and will continue to do so for the simple reason that people don’t really want to change and the people that are spreading not the greatest views aren’t willing to change. After all, anything that goes against their view they can easily rally their followers to attack or to muddy discussions rather than to actually grow and change. This makes more sense to them rather than actually mobilizing their followers into doing some good in the world or changing their stance or listening to other people’s points.
Unlike what Dr. Jordan says about these issues, I don’t believe cultural issues are all that difficult or complicated. We’ve seen plenty of changes in many regards on a variety of issues. It’s because many of us have actually done something about those issues. There are studies, reports, and experiments that span decades or several years at least.
All that self-help gurus are doing is keeping people in the dark about those issues. And discussions about them lean towards views that go against the popular opinion right now. There are plenty of studies that outline that. They do this because that’s how it works today.
But despite this broken system being the way that it is right now, I believe it can be salvaged and that it can be changed. After all, there’s nothing complicated about growing and adapting. We’ve been doing that for millions of years. If we’ve made it this far, surely we can manage this, right?
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