Marianne Williamson: It's All About You.

Yes, just "think" yourself well reads the individualistic ideology of the millionaire guru to the stars. The billionaire Oprah Winfrey bought 1000 of copies of one of her books and said she experienced some 157 miracles apparently. Why 157 I wonder?

Williamson once said that nothing happens outside the mind when the reality is that everything does and the "mind" or consciousness is itself a product of that material world. Her statement that “disconnection” from community, nature, and the arts...." has a lot to do with mental illness is not wrong but like unlike Marx who also spent a lot of time dealing with human alienation, she does not in any way address the cause of this as being the system in which we live. Surely if a plant wilts or a fish in a bowl or our pond dies, we would check the water, the soil among other things. We wouldn't just blame the fish. Ms. Williamson’s solutions are all subjective and very dangerous to be honest.

The idea that society, capitalism, makes people sick doesn’t enter her head. Why should it? She’s spent her life as an entrepreneur, a business person and done quite well thank you. Consequently, the class struggle is absent from her vocabulary, yet a cursory glimpse at history and human progress reveals that it is through collective action, through the interventions of the working class, the poor and the exploited,  that human society has advanced.

Just think positive thoughts, that’s the ideology of the successful, ignoring the reality of what made them what they are. Warren Buffet just got rich by working hard. You do the same, make the right choices and it’s out there for you. The result of this, to use the psychologists term (and I have benefited myself from psychologists but not the idealism branch.), is self blame, guilt, and ultimately, when the remedy doesn't arrive, self hatred.

As far as Israel goes, Williamson is an admirer of Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism. Her views here are also in the realm of fantasy: “I don’t think the ultimate answer will be about settlements or checkpoints,” she told the JTA a Jewish website. “The work of the genuine peace builders must be on the level of the heart” she said, and that “until the U.S. returns to where it can be considered an honest broker” by the Palestinians, as well as Israelis, it won’t be able to play a constructive role.

This is pure fantasy as the US is playing an honest role. It is supporting its only reliable ally in the Middle East that can help guarantee its plunder of the region’s resources.

As an American Jew does she support reparations for the Palestinians I wonder? It would appear not as she doesn’t seem to think the settlements are an issue. These settlements are occupied by religious fanatics and colonists from all around the world whose defense of their position is that god promised them the land. I can only assume that she doesn’t support the Palestinians' right of return and the abolishing of the settlements. This article is from Slate Magazine.  Richard Mellor

Why Disability Rights Advocates Are Scared by Marianne Williamson’s Healer-in-Chief Candidacy

“She wants everyone to think themselves well.”

By Ruth Graham Aug, 3rd

Compared to her fellow presidential candidates, Marianne Williamson has a striking agility with the language of health and illness. In her first debate, she proclaimed that America has “a sickness care system” instead of a healthcare system, and lamented the scourge of “unnecessary chronic illnesses.” She has written books about weight loss, the psychology of midlife, and “spiritual healing for the modern plagues of anxiety and depression.” She often uses metaphors of illness and wellness to discuss abstract policy—money in politics is “the cancer that underlies all the other cancers,” for example. Her campaign slogan is: “Heal the soul of America.”

Williamson’s woo-woo wellness rhetoric has generally prompted eye-rolls from election-watchers. But some people with disabilities and disability rights activists see something more sinister at work: a campaign whose big idea is that positive thinking is a political and physical cure-all, and that illness and disability can be caused by negative vibes. When Williamson emerged from the second round of debates this week with bona fide momentum, those critics grew increasingly concerned. “To see her rising to prominence is really worrying to me,” said S.E. Smith, an editor and writer on disability issues. “She wants everyone to think themselves well, which is a damaging message we have heard for a long time.”

First, there’s Williamson’s apparent skepticism of mainstream medicine, especially “Big Pharma.” She tweeted earlier this summer that the main cause of mental illness is a “disconnection” from community, nature, and the arts, for example. “The message that many disabilities are just in your mind and can be overcome with love, or with better self-actualization or a better relationship with the divine, is not a message that supports structures for people with all sorts of disabilities,” said David Perry, a writer who takes medication for depression and who has a son with Down syndrome and autism. A president’s rhetoric on those issues matters tremendously, Perry pointed out: Federal policy has a huge impact on disabled people’s lives, from housing to education access to Social Security. (A representative for Williamson’s campaign said Friday it would send a statement, but did not follow up by press time. She told the New York Times in July that she does not judge anyone who takes anti-depressants.)

It’s not just Williamson’s rhetoric that troubles disability rights activists. The candidate’s 15-point health care plan has provoked criticism, too. “Williamson’s ideas around health policy make me believe she has a phobia of illness and disability,” Imani Barbarin, a writer with cerebral palsy, wrote in Rewire this week. Williamson’s plan focuses on prevention, which in itself is unobjectionable. But “there is little acknowledgement of the existence of disabled people.”

According to another Rewire piece, Williamson is also one of just a few candidates who have committed to reinstating Obama-era regulations that would restrict people with psychiatric disabilities from buying guns. Those restrictions were opposed by many disability rights groups on the grounds that they stigmatize people with mental illness, restrict rights without due process, and, they say, do little to prevent mass shootings.

Other missteps suggest Williamson is simply not paying attention. For the 29^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act last week, her Instagram and Twitter accounts posted a statement that praised a controversial nonprofit where intellectually disabled workers earn less than minimum wage, and used the phrase “differently abled,” which is among the euphemisms rejected by many disabled people.

Williamson has tweeted that the “spirit self, which is the true Self, cannot be disabled.” She has suggested we should “pour God’s love on our immune systems” in defense of swine flu.

In an interview last year, she referred to clinical depression as a “scam,” a claim for which she apologized this week. Williamson has attempted to walk back her documented skepticism of vaccines, too, explaining that she’s “pro-vaccine” but merely raising “questions about the role of predatory Big Pharma.” But few people in the anti-vaccine movement state directly that vaccines are harmful, Perry pointed out. Most simply “raise questions” and cast suspicion.

As Williamson has risen in prominence, her critics in the disability rights community have grown more vocal. “Disabled people are shouting from the rooftops that she is a danger to us,” activist Sarah Blahovec tweeted recently in a widely shared thread. “It’s not cute, it’s terrifying.” “We can see the dangers Williamson poses to our community,” an activist and writer named Liz Moore wrote in a Bustle op-ed this week.

The question now is whether Democratic voters will hear Williamson’s critics over the voices of those who find her refreshing, amusing, or both. “One thing that has been distressing is watching other progressives who find her message on reparations positive, or think she’s cute and funny, ignore the voices of disabled folks and allies,” Perry said. “if you’re not listening to these messages of warning, why not?”