Summary of Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless (7/10)
In his book Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, Steve Salerno exposed the multi-billion dollar self-help industry as a fraud. His thesis is simple: the self-help movement has not helped Americans become more self-reliant, it has made us more helpless. In this blog post, we’ll provide a summary of Salerno’s key points and explain why the self-help industry is nothing more than a sham.
The self-help movement began in the early 19th century with books like Samuel Smiles’ Self-Help and Benjamin Franklin’s The Way to Wealth. These books preached the gospel of hard work and personal responsibility, and they were immensely popular. However, as Salerno points out, these books were written at a time when Americans were still largely self-sufficient. There was no welfare state to fall back on, no safety net to catch you if you failed. As a result, people who failed to help themselves often found themselves destitute. he self-help message of hard work and personal responsibility was more than just good advice, it was a survival strategy.
In contrast, today’s self-help movement is largely geared towards middle-class and upper-class Americans who are already quite comfortable. Books like The Secret and The Power promote the power of positive thinking and the law of attraction, promising riches and success to those who believe. But as Salerno points out, these books don’t offer any real advice on how to achieve these things.
The situation changed dramatically in the 20th century. As the welfare state expanded and the safety net became more robust, Americans became less self-reliant and more reliant on government assistance. At the same time, the self-help movement morphed into something very different from what it had been in the 19th century. No longer about hard work and personal responsibility, the self-help movement of the 20th century was about feel-good platitudes and empty promises. It was about selling snake oil to desperate people who were looking for any way to improve their lives. And it was very, very profitable.
The self-help industry is now a multi-billion dollar business, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Thanks to the internet, there are now more self-help gurus than ever before, and they’re all peddling their own brand of snake oil. Whether it’s The Secret or The Law of Attraction or some other New Age nonsense, the self-help industry is nothing more than a giant money-making scheme. The people who peddle this snake oil are preying on the desperation of their customers, and they’re making a fortune doing it. But what’s even more dangerous than the self-help industry’s fraud is the way it’s eroding our sense of self-reliance.
As Salerno points out, the self-help movement’s emphasis on positive thinking and the power of affirmations has led to a culture of victimhood, where people believe that they’re powerless to improve their lives. This is a dangerous mindset, and it’s one that is actively encouraged by the self-help industry.
The self-help industry is a sham, and it’s time we exposed it for what it is.In Sham, Salerno interviews some of the biggest names in the self-help industry, and he exposes them as charlatans and frauds. Tony Robbins, for example, is nothing more than a motivational speaker who yells a lot and tells his audiences what they want to hear. Deepak Chopra is a quack who peddles pseudoscientific nonsense. And Oprah Winfrey is nothing more than a self-help guru who uses her vast wealth and influence to sell books and products that don’t work.
The self-help industry is a billion dollar business because it sells false hope to desperate people. It tells them that their problems can be fixed if they just buy the latest book/program/course/seminar/retreat/etc., when in reality these things never work. If you’re feeling lost and helpless, don’t waste your money on snake oil solutions from so-called gurus. Do what Americans used to do before the self-help movement took over: pick yourself up by your bootstraps and help yourself.
