THE INCREDIBLY STUPID THOUGHTS OF DEEPAK CHOPRA
There are few human beings on planet earth more annoying than Deepak Chopra, the touchy-feely, New Age Guru whose fetid, gooey, and completely banal nostrums regarding health and healing have reached a new low in the history of civilized thought.
He is, in short, a first class idiot.
To prove my point, Dorothy Rabinowitz writing in the Wall Street Journal caught this fakir blaming America for the attacks in Mumbai:
Soon enough, there was Deepak Chopra, healer, New Age philosopher and digestion guru, advocate of aromatherapy and regular enemas, holding forth on CNN on the meaning of the attacks.
How the ebullient Dr. Chopra had come to be chosen as an authority on terror remains something of a mystery, though the answer may have something to do with his emergence in the recent presidential campaign as a thinker of advanced political views. Also commending him, perhaps, is his well known capacity to cut through all sorts of complexities to make matters simple. No one can fail to grasp the wisdom of a man who has informed us that “If you have happy thoughts, then you make happy molecules.”
In his CNN interview, he was no less clear. What happened in Mumbai, he told the interviewer, was a product of the U.S. war on terrorism, that “our policies, our foreign policies” had alienated the Muslim population, that we had “gone after the wrong people” and inflamed moderates. And “that inflammation then gets organized and appears as this disaster in Bombay.”
All this was a bit too much, evidently, for CNN interviewer Jonathan Mann, who interrupted to note that there were other things going on — matters like the ongoing bitter Pakistan-India struggle over Kashmir — which had caused so much terror and so much violence. “That’s not Washington’s fault,” he pointed out.
Blogger Betsy Newmark has it about right:
It takes a seriously twisted world view to pivot immediately to finding a way to blame America for terrorists storming hotels and other soft targets to gun down people innocently going about their business. Rabinowitz ties this view to the handwringing over a report that the majority of people in the Middle East think that 9/11 was a put-up job done by the United States and Israel.
Reading Chopra’s writings at Huffington Post is a mind altering experiences; you are forced to alter your perception of how anyone could be so remarkably oblivious to their own idiocy. It is impossible to reconcile in your mind the idea that anyone could take such a lightweight seriously.
On November 7, 2008, at 9:45am , I, Deepak Chopra, took a vow of
non-violence in my thoughts, in my speech and in my actions. I, then,
also had an opportunity to ask the almost 500 people attending the plenary session for the Alliance for a New Humanityin Barcelona if they would join me in this commitment.I first asked them to close their eyes, put their awareness in their hearts and ask themselves honestly and seriously if they were willing to take a vow.
I told them that a vow is a sacred commitment from which there is no going back. It is like a child that is born, who cannot return to the womb.
I told them if they were ready to take this vow, they should stand up.
People stood up, one by one at first, then in groups of twos and threes, and finally in tidal waves, until more than 450 people had stood up and taken the vow.
Following this, everybody agreed to have at least two people in their lives take the vow. The two in turn, would have two others join them in taking the vow. Our immediate goal now is to get 100 Million people across the world to take this vow. In the meantime, we will be setting up ways to measure and support the dramatic effects this tidal wave of shift in consciousness is going to create.
Ahem…their “immediate goal was to get 100 million people across the world to take this vow?” The “dramatic effects of this tidal wave?”This kind of simple minded, feel good sophistry is what Chopra excels in foisting on his legions of worshippers who mistake his syrupy treacle for serious thought.The idea that such a task is even possible would never cross the mind of anyone except a simple minded dolt.
Here’s what passes for political analysis from Chopra commenting on Obama’s election:
The most sober comment came from Obama himself, when he pointed out that his win wasn’t the change the country is seeking but only the chance for change. Happily, he’s wrong in several regards. We will see immediate change globally. The rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the neocons’ attempt to create an American military empire.
In the end, the most moving comment came from Sen. John McCain in his concession speech. Like all the candidates who have stood for the Republican cause since the Reagan revolution, McCain couldn’t resist the temptation to employ “junk politics and immorality” in his campaign. But he went out honorably by saying that America “isn’t a country that hides from history.” That hasn’t been true for the past eight years. Let’s hope it’s gloriously true from now on.
So we’ve been “hiding from history” the last 8 years? What planet has this guy been visiting during the Bush Administration? More likely, he hasn’t a clue what history is and therefore believes that sticking ones head in the sand about terrorism and all the evil in the world passes for facing history square in the face.
Chopra delights in trivializing the momentus and obscuring the obvious. One need only read his “political” writings at Huffington Post to become lost in a sea of the most mind boggling shibboleths, inane platitudes, and nauseating screeds against Republicans you can find anywhere on the internet. No one bothers critiquing his thinking anymore because frankly, there is so little in the way of intellectual meat in his scribblings that any such effort isn’t worth the pixels that would be expended in trying to explain the depth of his stupidity.
Read the rest of Rabinowitz’s piece to get a good laugh.
Welcome back Rick. Clearly your batteries are charged, your scope is polished, and you return fully armed into this target rich environment.
Comment by mark30339 — 12/1/2008 @ 1:32 pm
This piece caused me to produce happy molecules.
Comment by michael reynolds — 12/1/2008 @ 1:41 pm
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”
Comment by mal — 12/1/2008 @ 1:51 pm
Great. Peaceful people stand up and vow not to change. How’s that going to impact on the warlike ones?
Comment by Dale — 12/1/2008 @ 2:09 pm
Rick:
Your piece reinforced my feeling about one reason the hatred of President Bush and America runs so deep among these folksand it is pathological.
I believe a major cause of the hatred of the president is that President Bush represents an implicit rejection of core New Age beliefs. It is not merely that he doesn’t share their beliefs, or even merely reject them on a personal level. The issue is really that his presidency challenges their notion of what reality actually is.
They want a world where everything is relative and you “create your own reality.” In their world wishing for peace should be the same as attaining it. Putting a “Free Tibet” bumper sticker on your car is the only struggle you need engage in, having a “wage peace” bumper sticker is all the pain you need to suffer to create peace. If you say it is so, it is so. If you deny the existence of terror, there is none.
The idea that someone could want to hurt you even though you are so “evolved” is completely foreign to them. They have no understanding of random evil(they missed a main point of “Othello” or likely never read it).
Since 9/11 President Bush has forced them to discuss and deal with evil and they don’t like doing so because they think that they can make their molecules happy and it will go away. It hasn’t gone away so it must be President Bush that has caused the problem. I would expect that they are in for sore disappointment because I doubt President Obama can make reality go away either. But then their ability to rationalize and build excuses is almost limitless. Expect more irrationality as the Politics of the Oprahnation continue.
Comment by Jim — 12/1/2008 @ 2:12 pm
Jesus Fucking Christ. Madonna would have been a font of wisdom compared to Chopra.
Is the problem really the delusional banalaties that emanate from Deepak Chopra (or Andrew Sullivan and other deranged/vacuous fools who hold forth on things outside their respective depths)? I submit the problem is with CNN (or The Atlantic or The Huffington Post or whatever). Rabinowitz is dead on here. It is one thing to note the utter madness of certain individuals, or their stupidity, or both, but quite another to quote them as legitimate sources. Who would be Chopra’s second source? Chauncey the Gardener?
You made me laugh, quite a bit at that, but the media has problems these days that go well beyond run of the mill bias.
Comment by jackson1234 — 12/1/2008 @ 2:33 pm
I want to find these vow-takers so I can beat them up and take their lunch money…
And it will be okay; because I’m just helping them separate themselves from relying too much on “things” and forcing them to rely on their inner peace”…
/sarcasm
Comment by jtb-in-texas — 12/1/2008 @ 6:00 pm
Much of his writing seems to be the end product of so many enemas.
Comment by Pat Curley — 12/1/2008 @ 6:19 pm
Rick, I don’t understand why you’re wasting your considerable blogging talents writing about this guy…
Comment by Chuck Tucson — 12/1/2008 @ 6:47 pm
badda bing, he is back, nail on the head…
i have to agree with jim on this issue, though i think the real problem is they live in their own little worlds, and they just don’t get it, it being the fact that the indians learned this last week, there really are people that want to hurt you not so much for who you are, but for what you represent, thus random violence is their biggest weapon… as for deepak he is too deep up his arse to help or really hurt anyone…
Comment by jambrowski — 12/1/2008 @ 7:02 pm
Chopra also holds court at the BBC, that tax-funded left wing state broadcasting/propaganda machine in Britain. He’s often invited onto political discussion shows to give his $0.02 on issues he knows absolutely nothing about.
It’s the intellectual equivalent of asking Richard Simmons for his view on geopolitics.
The BBC loves him so much, he’s one of their “featured authors” on their audiobook web page:
http://www.bbcaudiobooksamerica.com/contributorinfo.cfm?ContribID=2836
Comment by Jason S — 12/1/2008 @ 8:57 pm
Your website is aptly named Rightwing Nuthouse. Why would you diss yourself like that? I think right wing conservative is just another name for terrorist. Its just socially acceptable…
Comment by Ru-an — 12/1/2008 @ 9:35 pm
Deepak Chopra is one of the millions of useful idiots, without whose help the media obfuscation on the real nature of Islamic terrorism would be unsuccessful.
Comment by Nagarajan Sivakumar — 12/1/2008 @ 10:00 pm
So, all these terrorist attacks around the world which have killed thousands since the 80’s has been “a product of the U.S. war on terrorism” ? Oh, really ? So our war on terror which began after 2001 can be blamed on all the attacks prior to that time ? Is this like a time warp, dude ? Am I like traveling backward in time, man ? Like wow, dude…..totally cooool, man. Wow.
My questions are: Are there any thinking, logical Americans remaining ? Is there something in the water supply which is causing many juvenile, ignorant Americans to believe this non-sense ?
The sad fact is that there are large groups of people in this world who are willing to strap a bomb to the backs of their own children in order to kill people. It’s not about religion, it’s not about politics, it’s not about advancing a cause. It’s murder. And it’s evil.
Comment by DaveinPhoenix — 12/1/2008 @ 10:16 pm
I remember there was the German yoga peace party who wanted to go down to Bosnia to stop the fighting via jumping up and down in a yoga squat. I would have loved to see the eyes of the Serb soldiers being confronted with that bunch…I guess you almost have a billion Indians so no suprise there are some outliers.
Comment by funny man — 12/1/2008 @ 10:46 pm
“Hiding from History”? Where has this guy been is right…More like we’ve been hunting down and mounting History for eight years. These people live in fantasy worlds.
How is it possible to demand “Human Rights”, yet scoff at the Liberation of Millions of Iraqis and Afghanis?
Selective Delusional Memory perhaps?
Comment by BiasedGirl — 12/2/2008 @ 12:28 am
He’s clearly a fool, but maybe crazy like a fox. He lives over there, and what better way to insure his own safety from these Islamists than to jump on the blame-America-train? Furthermore, its probably good for business… only mindless Bush-hating liberals attend his seminars, so Bush-bashing raises his profile among the pool of potential customers.
Comment by lionheart — 12/2/2008 @ 9:12 am
He clearly was invited on to show off that the network could get the right accent on the air to comment.
Fluffernutter for the soul.
Comment by The Distributist — 12/2/2008 @ 4:10 pm
Thank you, Rick and thank you commenters. I was beginning to think that I was alone is seeing Shallowpak Chopra as a blithering idiot incapable of a coherent thought. His writings only bring to mind Deep Thoughts:
“Better not take a dog on a space shuttle, because if he sticks his head out when you’re coming home, he might burn up.” SNL Character Jack Handy
The final word on Deepak Chopra comes fittingly from a cartoon:
“What a maroon!” Philosopher Bugs Bunny
Comment by still liberal — 12/2/2008 @ 8:31 pm
Jim’s observation deserves to be reread. It is a deeper application of the lack of reality testing we have noticed on the left. Thanks. I may expand on that in the next week.
Good essay, Rick. But Chopra’s not a first-class idiot. It takes a lot of training to get to Idiot, First Class. You have to learn to see the obvious, and Chopra’s nowhere near that.
Comment by Assistant Village Idiot — 12/2/2008 @ 9:17 pm
Ru-an, let me ask a question.
“The first self-help book i ever read was Conversations With God,” you say.
If it’s a “self-help” book, why did you need someone else to write it?
Comment by Wickedpinto — 12/2/2008 @ 11:48 pm
The math is not in his favor. Six billion inhabitants…roughly one billion Muslims. If and when 100 million people forswear war we will have almost 2% so committed. I imagine we already have that many committed out of simple incapacity (too young, too starved, etc.). Then if only 2% are demented death-mongers we still have 100 million ready willing and somewhat able to wreak havoc.
Comment by math minor — 12/3/2008 @ 12:46 am
Sixpack Sofa, Oprah, Bill Clinton, and Obama are not idiots — they’re con-men. They possess the con’s genius for intuiting sentimental weak spots. Every single one of them would make brilliant plantiff injury attorneys.
Comment by John Howard — 12/3/2008 @ 8:59 am
He is the enema! He needs to be de-packed (or to use the medical term: disimpacted)!
Comment by Anu Nudnik — 12/3/2008 @ 1:37 pm
A perfect example of why I think Conservatism is dead. With all of the issues facing the movement you guys are frothing over the comments of some insignificant lefty. So who is the bigger moron, the moron who made idiotic comments or the people that think his comments are even worth discussing?
Man does not live by bread alone. I write what I write because I want to - not because every word that pours forth from my rather large but somewhat empty head is destined to alter the course of history or solve the financial crisis or cure conservatism or comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable nor even unlock the mysteries of Area 51.
I write what I write because I want to write about it. You can read it or go away. Telling me or anyone else what to write about is idiotic. If you want to write about something, get your own damn blog.
ed.
Comment by grognard — 12/3/2008 @ 1:40 pm
Chopra is a left-leaning celebrity. The media interviews left-leaning celebrities. That’s it, the only reason we hear from the guy on political issues.
“The rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the neocons’ attempt to create an American military empire.”
CREATE an American Military Empire? I guess they mean there was plan afoot to use the American Military to LITERALLY take over the world. It’s a stupid notion, but not surprising considering the source.
Comment by DoorHold — 12/3/2008 @ 2:08 pm
Actually, it’s Rabinowitz who is way off.
The fight over Kashmir has origins which go back to the divide-and-rule politics of the last days of the Raj. Pakistan is almost single-handedly the creation of the very Westernized Jinnah, who died within a year of its creation. The British played Jinnah off the Muslim leaders in the Indian Congress to create their ill-fated “two state” solution, which directly led to the blood bath of partition.
The jihadis who are behind terrorism today were brought to center stage and funded by none other than the US, under President Carter (thanks to Carter’s foreign policy guy, the virulently anti-Russian Pole, Z. Brzezinski). In all the years that terrorism (and Islamic terrorism is only one of several kinds on all fronts on the subcontinent) has been taking its toll of India (several decades, and to the tune of 60,000 plus), where was the US? Propping up the very governments (eg. Pakistan)behind terrorism.
The hypocrisy and ignorance is astounding.
Every Indian (and Chopra lived in India before coming to the US) is well aware of this history. Rabinowitz, I will wager, knows nothing about it.
As for Chopra’s platitudes - well, it’s better to encourage introspection and soft-speaking than belligerent ignorance, if the reputation of the Bush administration has anything to say to us.
We have plenty of political”scientists” on TV every day, if its social-science jargon
that you need.
If you are going to quarrel with Chopra’s science, or lack thereof, that’s a different question….but you still have problems. You’d need to place your scientific and medical credentials against his and become more specific. Especially, a lot of the “snake oil” you claim he is peddling - and there might be some, I don’t have an opinion one way or other - is fairly respectable in medicine. For eg., take the reference to “happy molecules,” well, emotions do in fact affect our immune system and our health.
Chopra is a popularizer of traditional ayurvedic, yogic and Hindu concepts. He is also a very well-trained Western physician. He has now become a prolific and popular writer and an extremely successful businessman. His writing - whatever you think of it - is very influential. I have seen his responses in a variety of settings to quite mean-spirited and ignorant attacks on him and am favorably impressed by his restraint. If he is a snake-oil salesman, and he might be, he is one who shows a great deal of character. More than the snake-oil salesmen at the Wall Street Journal who’ve been selling their snake-oil (junk bonds, anyone?) for decades without any criticism.
Comment by Lila Rajiva — 12/9/2008 @ 9:02 am
For what it’s worth, i think we are all wrong in what we’ve sed. there is no one on here more pro-american and patriotic than me, i’ve served on the front line and seen what is sed in war circles and what is done. And i can safely say, that we as a nation are not perfect and WE ARE responsible for a hand full of the terrorism which has been born as result of our actions. I never knew who Deepak Chopra was, until i heard these allegations against him, and amazingly after researching what he’s sed, he’s not far from the truth at all. And compared to all the millitant vioces out there, east and west, he is one vioce which does not pose a aggressive threat or talks of any negative response, but instead a realistic outspoken view, which we all know deep down is true, but dont have the heart to admit it, we have done wrong, we are not perfect, and in this war , we have made critical errors, this i can promise, im sorry if that offends some of my countrymen, but i’d rather speak out like a true american and admit when i’m wrong with what little dignity i have. Thank you
Comment by All.American.joe — 12/11/2008 @ 1:05 pm