Worrying signs of a power trip

OPRAH Winfrey has cleverly, if cynically, parlayed an empathetic nature into a global phenomenon.

THE opinions of a certain American television personality are not high on my list of things to think about before I die.

Frankly, I am so elitist that until recently I still pronounced her name as "opera" and it has taken about 10 years and the ridicule of my children for me to remember the correct pronunciation is O-praaah.

Perhaps I am one of those people referred to in The Australian's December 8 editorial: "The instinct to mock anything that could be considered popular is an unfortunate trait of the self-styled sophisticates who dominate much of the media debate here."

However, being unpopular has never bothered me. It is no distinction to always think like the hoi polloi. Nevertheless, since the Prime Minister of this country appears to be willing to break her holidays to appear on Winfrey's show, I suppose we must take note of the Oprah phenomenon.

And, of course, we must accept that Winfrey is not simply a person but a phenomenon, and not solely because she has an audience of millions and her opinions obviously carry a lot of sway. She seems to have entered into the modern psyche in a way no other mere television personality has.

Look at her excitable fans. They usually refer to her by her first name, as if they really know her, as if she were a blood relative. They identify closely with her so-called struggles, they laugh and groan with her, they obey her every cue on television and even apparently read the same things she reads.

Her secret is that she has unlocked a psychological key in her audience. They identify with her, perhaps because their own sense of identity is weak. Consequently, Oprah is a lot more than simply popular. She is very powerful, so powerful that with Oprah the personal has really become political and she is credited in no small degree with the ascension of Barack Obama. Oprah is the powerful projection of the powerless.

So we cannot simply ignore her presence in our country. We are forced to take note because she is indeed a phenomenon of modern communication. But, with all that, and perhaps because of all that, I have to admit to feeling more than a little uncomfortable about The Oprah Winfrey Show, whether it is here or over there.

At the risk of being accused of elitism, I have to say there is something not a little sinister about the Oprah phenomenon.

It is not Winfrey per se that I don't much like. Winfrey is probably a charming person. Indeed, she would have to be to have done what she has done. It is the Oprah Winfrey, oracular guru, with the sort of influence that makes fans exclaim, "Oprah has made such an impact on my life", who worries me. There are her lifestyle ponderings - really just the usual simplistic exhortations to eat right combined with practical morality - her intellectual advice (as in: read this book) and, of course, her spirituality-lite combined with the arm's-length do-goodism as evidenced by her somewhat botched African girls school venture.

Her Best Life series for women - to quote a fan, for those who have "struggles with weight and self-esteem" - is only a repackaging of the two central themes that form the staple of women's magazines' psychobabble, to which many women are addicted.

But strangely the person who peddles this banal stuff, the epitome of modern feel-goodism, is more than simply a star thriving on popularity. Winfrey has power and the real question is why. Why are people - especially women - in this post-feminist age in thrall to the pronouncements of this one woman? What gives her such oracular status?

Why does a woman, although ambitious and successful, who has no great claim to any special moral or intellectual enlightenment have such a huge influence? Is her ordinariness her virtue? Or is that her legions of mostly female fans are indeed so simple?

There is a school of thought that people have allowed the Winfrey phenomenon to flourish because she fulfils a moral need, a need for authoritative guidance. There is a vacuum in society, and it is more than a values vacuum. It is a vacuum of moral authority.

There are few people willing and able to speak in any intelligent, forceful way, let alone with a sense of empathy, about any moral issue - and all of life's big issues are essentially moral. Winfrey is very intelligent but she does her job so well mainly, I think, because she is a woman. Women are so very clever with empathy.

Perhaps you are thinking: "Let's not get too hung up on Winfrey, at least you can turn her off." But what about all the other self-styled popular gurus, especially the pseudo-spiritual ones such as the truly low-level Deepak Chopra?

And what about some male household names? The appeal is similar to the Winfrey phenomenon but there is a big difference. Jon Stewart, Larry King, Alan Jones - behind all of them there is an overweening arrogance. But the main difference is that they are there only to tell you what they think. They don't want to change your life. And, of course, they are men and have little empathy and do not try to manufacture it.

Most people today don't know where to look for moral guidance, except perhaps to the media or their best friend, and Winfrey has become everybody's best friend. There is no locus for authority. At its most extreme this produces a terrible arrogance.

American society has always been a bit of an opinionated free-for-all, but Winfrey embeds herself into our psyche and manipulates our so-called lifestyle, except for us more sceptical, unpopular, hoity-toity types who tend to simply have a life, if no style.