[ExI] "create our own realities"

[Damien Broderick]

The trope is harmless if understood to mean 
"think for yourself," "be optimistic," etc. But 
that's NOT what is meant in woo-woo circles, 
which is closer to the malignant magical thinking 
exemplified in today's depressing but familiar NYT report from Kenya:

<When the Kikuyus fled the village up the road 
from us, local food supplies quickly dried up, 
hunger set in among the mob and rioting flared 
again. Then a Samburu witch doctor announced that 
it was time for his warriors, supporters of Mr. 
Odinga, to advance on the Pokot tribesmen, who 
had backed Mr. Kibaki. He said he had found a way 
to turn Pokot bullets into rain ­ a promise that 
evidently precipitated the clashes erupting around me.>

Of course, it's possible in this case that Kenyan 
cultures understand this sort of suicidal claim 
about bullets (or magical invisibility to one's 
foes, etc) as a metaphor for brave behavior, 
rather than literally, which is how New Age 
dickheads want to read such idiocy.*

Damien Broderick
* E.g. THE SECRET: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_(2006_film)