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Here in the US, in the last 10-15 years, there's been this huge increase in self help/empowerment/positive thinking. Would you call it a movement, an ideology, a state of living?
-"The Secret" was a huge phenomenon. It almost reminded me of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings in terms of being a mania...wasnt the book a bestseller last year?
-The rise of Suze Orman, Joel Olsteen, Wayne Dyer, all these guys. Even on old, venerable PBS. The station of Jim Lehrer and Louis Rukeyser! And now it's Rich Dad telling you how to make millions in real estate (if you buy his material).
-Dr Phil, Oprah empowerment. This could be a big topic, but you could say Oprah has almost turned into a religion. I've seen articles comparing the two.
And I'm sure other things I'm forgetting about. Is self help/empowerment popular in europe or asia? Why, or why not?
It might be more popular here because of American individualism, this can do spirit that everyone deserves to make alot of money and have success. Obviously in cultures where the family or group take precedent, this isn't the case. Or where money, or material success isn't as important.
It seems like in the rest of the world (asia in particular), they focus on science, math, engineering, education to get ahead. You always read stories about the Chinese graduating X number of engineers or beating us in math. Or South Korea is beating us in broadband. Why are we obsessed about Wayne Dyer or Kiyosaki to make us rich? Have we given up?
I think like all US trends, it has become more popular but not to the same extent. There are now a lot of self help etc... organisations running seminars and lectures and a lot of books around but I still feel most Europeans tend to have a different attitude to it. Maybe because family life is still a lot more intact people tend to go to their family and thrash out problems or resort to their friends for help. But like everywhere else around the world, people are getting more stressed out, family units are slowly disintegrating too and time is more and more precious so I can foresee a not too distant future when it will be as prominent a part of society. Most people I have spoken about this to in Europe tend to still view shrinks as specialists for "mentally ill" people.
Regarding self empowerment I think more and more people over here are getting into it as a means to achieve success and riches ( our new modern Holy Grail , rather than trying to reach happiness) as we are sadly all becoming more and more consumerist and greedy and see money as the only way to be happy. Which is a vicious circle of course as people then work harder, are under more pressure to "perform", enjoy their lives less, and become more and more dissatisfied, unhappy and disillusioned with their lots and need shrinks even more....
Last edited by Mooseketeer; 10-29-2007 at 08:25 AM..
I was hoping the answer was "no!" Haven't lived abroad for ages, but your post just underlined the impact of the media and advertising across borders and oceans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mooseketeer
I think like all US trends, it has become more popular but not to the same extent. There are now a lot of self help etc... organisations running seminars and lectures and a lot of books around but I still feel most Europeans tend to have a different attitude to it. Maybe because family life is still a lot more intact people tend to go to their family and thrash out problems or resort to their friends for help. But like everywhere else around the world, people are getting more stressed out, family units are slowly disintegrating too and time is more and more precious so I can foresee a not too distant future when it will be as prominent a part of society. Most people I have spoken about this to in Europe tend to still view shrinks as specialists for "mentally ill" people.
Regarding self empowerment I think more and more people over here are getting into it as a means to achieve success and riches ( our new modern Holy Grail , rather than trying to reach happiness) as we are sadly all becoming more and more consumerist and greedy and see money as the only way to be happy. Which is a vicious circle of course as people then work harder, are under more pressure to "perform", enjoy their lives less, and become more and more dissatisfied, unhappy and disillusioned with their lots and need shrinks even more....
Here in the US, in the last 10-15 years, there's been this huge increase in self help/empowerment/positive thinking. Would you call it a movement, an ideology, a state of living?
-"The Secret" was a huge phenomenon. It almost reminded me of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings in terms of being a mania...wasnt the book a bestseller last year?
-The rise of Suze Orman, Joel Olsteen, Wayne Dyer, all these guys. Even on old, venerable PBS. The station of Jim Lehrer and Louis Rukeyser! And now it's Rich Dad telling you how to make millions in real estate (if you buy his material).
-Dr Phil, Oprah empowerment. This could be a big topic, but you could say Oprah has almost turned into a religion. I've seen articles comparing the two.
And I'm sure other things I'm forgetting about. Is self help/empowerment popular in europe or asia? Why, or why not?
It might be more popular here because of American individualism, this can do spirit that everyone deserves to make alot of money and have success. Obviously in cultures where the family or group take precedent, this isn't the case. Or where money, or material success isn't as important.
It seems like in the rest of the world (asia in particular), they focus on science, math, engineering, education to get ahead. You always read stories about the Chinese graduating X number of engineers or beating us in math. Or South Korea is beating us in broadband. Why are we obsessed about Wayne Dyer or Kiyosaki to make us rich? Have we given up?
I dont know much about whats going on in europe or asia, generally. All you tend to get here are soundbites and not very much coverage of what is going on.
I started a thread, maybe a page or two back on tv differences here vs abroad. Got some interesting replies.
And I've been noticing it more and more here...the audience Joel Olsteen preaches to is like a football stadium.
On the yahoo finance homepage...who do I see? Rich Dad, Suze Orman.
Here in the US, in the last 10-15 years, there's been this huge increase in self help/empowerment/positive thinking. Would you call it a movement, an ideology, a state of living?
-"The Secret" was a huge phenomenon. It almost reminded me of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings in terms of being a mania...wasnt the book a bestseller last year?
-The rise of Suze Orman, Joel Olsteen, Wayne Dyer, all these guys. Even on old, venerable PBS. The station of Jim Lehrer and Louis Rukeyser! And now it's Rich Dad telling you how to make millions in real estate (if you buy his material).
-Dr Phil, Oprah empowerment. This could be a big topic, but you could say Oprah has almost turned into a religion. I've seen articles comparing the two.
And I'm sure other things I'm forgetting about. Is self help/empowerment popular in europe or asia? Why, or why not?
It might be more popular here because of American individualism, this can do spirit that everyone deserves to make alot of money and have success. Obviously in cultures where the family or group take precedent, this isn't the case. Or where money, or material success isn't as important.
It seems like in the rest of the world (asia in particular), they focus on science, math, engineering, education to get ahead. You always read stories about the Chinese graduating X number of engineers or beating us in math. Or South Korea is beating us in broadband. Why are we obsessed about Wayne Dyer or Kiyosaki to make us rich? Have we given up?
I'd be very curious.
we bought hook line and sinker, our own preaching on "global economy" so we are not scared anymore about being passed up as we dont think in terms of us vs. them.
this will change when we get poor, then we will retro to nationalism again.
we are jus riding the good life wave right up to the sand aren't we?
ps actually caught an extra thread of your post, asia is not stagnant zen and such is having less meaning there because they have caught our money/consumer bug so meditation ect, is dwindling there. hopefully it will pick up somewheres else. asians are concerned.
but i could not agree more. here in good ol usa, rugged individualism has turned into a monster. winner takes all.
its the lone wolf now, there is no more "we".
this is the great lie, the great hollywood lie. its not about dirty harry.
its about hoosiers. team game, the team wins not dirty harry.
china is doin it right now and beating us badly.
biggest usa horror are families. i mean zero respect amongst them zero.
its awful. no concept of team at all. think they go to work in team mode when they break huddle, from home? i dont think so. home game and out of town game are played the same, lousy. a headless animal staggering down the hall blind deaf and dumb (sorry a little dramatic).
stephen s
san diego ca
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curious
