Oprah Winfrey is an American success story. She started out dirt poor and turned herself into the most powerful woman in media. The mere mention of a book on her show was enough to launch into bestseller status for weeks on end. Being one of her “pet experts” was sufficient to launch an individual into celebrity status with a show of their own.
However, while promoting her new movie, A Wrinkle in Time, the media icon had some advice to young girls in the audience that simply isn’t the greatest thing to tell them.
“Every one of us has an internal guidance, a GPS, an intuition, a heart print, a heart song that speaks to us,” she said. “Your only job is to be able to listen and discern when it’s speaking versus your head and your personality speaking, and if you follow that you will be led to the highest good for you, always.”
She added: “That’s why all the voices of the world mean nothing if your voice is in alignment with all the voices of the world. That’s true. No matter what you look like.”
Sounds inspirational, in a cult-speak sort of way. She’s telling you to follow your own heart. I think.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s something to be said about following your heart. I sit here and write for a living, for crying out loud. I followed my own heart to get where I am, so I’m not about to tell someone else not to. But I also know that making decisions based on reason and accountability is a necessary skill. As RedState’s Brandon Morse notes, “What Oprah is essentially saying is that you should live by your feelings, even at the expense of logic. What this invites is ignorance based decisions that will lead you, and those around you into bad situations.”
Oprah’s advice is to ignore society and do what you want. That has potential ramifications that many people don’t think about until after they’ve gived society the middle finger. Prison isn’t the only punishment that you may receive. People wanting nothing to do with you can serve as an informal punishment, as can be everyone refusing to help you until you stop making bad decisions.
Following your heart and refusing to temper it with anything like logic or rationality is terrible advice.
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