Dizzying Power

It is truly amazing, the drawing strength of some rare personalities capable of enthusing and stimulating a broad expanse of the public interest out of the inertia of surrender to the banality of life. The tremendous power of communication through television and the Internet has eclipsed all previous methods of instilling awe and respect in people through a political, religious, social agenda pursued for the purpose of gathering people together to realize a common goal.

New power structures have arisen through the force of rare personalities capable of a level of persuasion that leaves even charismatic ministries of the past with their vast supporters, in the dust of history. Someone like a populist yet elite television personality whose personal journey of discovery reaches out to the yearning masses, promising them deliverance from the ordinary, holding out the possibility of ascending to the highest order of human spirituality and achievement.

With, or without the vision of the traditional Judeo-Christian tradition of God somewhere in the general template of empowering people through their every spiritual, temporal and material desires fulfilled. Success of achievement can be theirs if they simply follow benevolent directions. Someone else has blazed the way, discovered the means by which true meaning can be approached and the thoughtfully worshipful can be enveloped within its comforting embrace.

Of course everything in this world has its price. Spirituality no less than group affiliation. In fact, the two converge very neatly, don't they? The attraction of frail souls to the power of imagination, particularly if it's someone else's powerful imagination, someone else whose success on the world stage is unquestioned, unrivalled, envied and emulated. And who has, coincidentally to achieving that vast following, amassed great wealth precisely through their trust.

Oprah Winfrey offers salvation. Her intent is to empower people, to help them find themselves, reach their goals. In fact, teach them what their goals should be. From the right books to read, to how they can decorate their homes, to the manner in which they should regard the world around them, and become an integral part of it. How to select a mate, raise their families. It's a gradual process, one that requires profound understanding of the steps to be taken.

The steps neatly laid out in a horizontal line of acquisition, a commercial transaction that resonates on the modern consciousness of satisfaction relating to personal material surroundings. Oprah Winfrey instructs her passionate followers whom to vote for, what to demand of their political leaders, and how to weigh the success of their personal lives. And to demand of themselves perfection; they can do it; they have it within themselves,they have but to reach high enough.

This is a woman who has succeeded in convincing herself of the rigorous righteousness of her drive to perfection. And in achieving that station in life, she generously and genuinely feels she can be the conduit that can lead others to experience the same life-affirming satisfactions she has been able to garner for herself. The substance of which she finds soul-affirming and which she is willing to share.

Everything is for sale, and nothing comes cheap. Ideas and ideals must be formulated and those to whom they reveal themselves have ownership over them and are given the opportunity to expand their fortunes while extending the virtues they've discovered to expanding urgently-trustful followers' futures. Their drive is messianic, for the need is great. There are so many lost souls out there in that troublingly-demanding world.

Can one truly be too critical of someone whose celebrity has been hard-won through the application of a fertile mind and a determined personality? A combination that has been amply demonstrated to appeal to the immense crowds of seekers after fulfillment and truth? If, through her machinations, she has been able to build her little empire and in the process give hope to countless searchers, why not?

Power, success, fulfillment becomes her. She glows with an incandescent fire. Illusion, allusion, delusion, whatever it takes.