 Can you keep a secret?
"Let me tell you a secret of mine."
What do you do when you hear these words? Well, I do have an answer- you probably come
closer to your friend, add a little mystery into your actions, perk up your ears and
listen to the darkened fact they wanted to enthusiastically share with you. Despite the
content of what they are saying- it might be a really embarrassing moment, a cruel fact
about their past or an all too soon admission- you feel a little proud. In a world where
everyone tries to hide their darkness with strong, invincible masks, the feeling of being
special to someone, and to see one's inner side greets you with pride and joy.
Let me ask another question. What if the owner of the secret is not a friend of yours?
What if they are someone you haven't even heard of until they came up with this mystery?
Can you feel that joy again or will suspicion dominate your enthusiasm? Will your brain
echo with the words "Is this person telling the truth? Is it really a secret?"
or will you just confide in their sincerity?
I surely don't know how your reaction may be, but I wasn't feeling that happy when Rhonda
Bryne's "Secret" hit the bookstores in the late spring (hey, don't say it's off
the agenda- it is still ranked as number one on bestseller lists!) Why would someone want
to share a secret with a ton of people she doesn't know? The strange thing is- why would
someone want to share the secret of success?
I still couldn't keep myself away from the book and read "Secret", but to tell
the truth, I found the doctrines much too contradictory. The principles were based on the
power of the individual and how one's thoughts can change life for the better. The book
strongly suggested self-esteem and belief is the core of human beings; but questions were
still left unanswered as I closed it. If individualism is that important, why struggle to
reach for the masses? If the secret helps you achieve your goals, why would you want
others to know it too? If everyone has access to that secret, then neither fame, nor
success, nor other aims in your life will be that rare to find, and some common goals will
even lose their meaning. Just think about it; if everyone learns the doctrines of the
"secret" and, assumingly, becomes wealthy- would wealth mean anything to us
anymore? If everyone knows the secret, will it be that mysterious and hidden?
Novelist, philosopher and individualist Ayn Rand believes that there are certain people
who are born different; who change the world for the better, and the ordinary masses just
keep them in chains- they can either shrug and make an impact, or be one of the ordinary
and consume oxygen. “Secret,” on the other hand, believes every single human is
different, but don't those differences unite us? If all human beings are unique, doesn't
uniqueness make us the same?
I know it sounds confusing. After all, maybe you expected me to share a dirty secret of
mine. The thing I do here is to open minds- not to confuse minds. In the end, whether you
believe in a unique core of individuals, or the power of collective societies, all
approaches limit you to a "typical" person that is exactly the same as others.
What we need to do is simple: shrug, find our own path and design our own secrets.
Farewell. Stay tuned!
Işıl Kutluay (ECON/II)
i_kutluay@ug.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr
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