Steve Pavlina Watch

This is a guest post from the anonymous author of Steve Pavlina Lies on Steve Pavlina’s new blog post from 2011-04-01, “Help Wanted,” where he says he wants to induct slaves to do his bidding, including sex slaves.

In his blog post today , Steve Pavlina mentions that he is looking for staff to help with his business.

However,   he doesn’t want to hire ‘employees’. Rather he is looking for ‘slaves’ to work for him in exchange for a place to stay, food to eat, ‘learning from him’, etc. And then he goes into his usual ‘having a sexy secretary as slave, having sex with his slave, being called a master’, etc rhetoric.

Here are some other important points about how this arrangement would work out:

1. No Employee Protection Government Regulations

Steve mentions that he doesn’t want to deal with all the bureaucracy and red tape involved with hiring employees. Translation: He doesn’t want to pay any taxes that would arise from owning X number of employees, OR, he doesn’t want to deal with the goverment laws that are put in place for the protection of employees.

Here are some of the things that the law provides protection against, but which anyone working as a slave for Steve would be unprotected from:

• Wrongful job termination.  (You can be fired at any time for any reason by Steve).
• Unsafe work environment / work conditions.
• Not being given proper health insurance/benefits.
• Sexual harassment.
• Racial discrimination.
• Emotional Distress.

It also means that, given the kind of unquestioning obedience he is looking from his ‘slaves’, if one of them was to get raped or harassed by Steve,  she would likely have no willing witnesses to what happened.

Of course, other things like emotional distress or bullying at work would also go unpunished without the protection laws that Steve brushes aside as ‘red tape’.

2. No Personal Development for Steve Pavlina’s Slaves

Though Steve talks all the time about personal development, instilling confidence in people, not following orders like a zombie, breaking free of cultural programming, etc, its amusing to see that he is actually looking for brainless zombies to work as his slaves, who would unquestioningly obey everything he says, and have everything from their food to their clothing picked out by him.

For example, on his forums, this is what someone asked him:

“What if they don’t like the food? Or each other?”

And this is what he replied:

“Submissive and obedient slaves don’t cause problems anyway. Only an uppity slave would do that sort of thing.”

Think about it. What kind of person would willingly enter a situation where:

• They don’t get paid for their work.
• They have to call a self important git like Steve Pavlina ‘master’.
• They don’t have any protection against discrimination, sexual harrassment, medical insurance, etc.
• They have to obey everything unquestioningly, and if they don’t, they are ‘uppity’.

My guess is, only someone who has hit rock bottom in his/her life. Definitely not someone who is employed in a job. And quite possibly someone who is extremely naive, such as a 18-21 year old, and/or someone with serious self image/self esteem issues.

Rather than give these people the confidence that they need, which would be ‘personal development’, Steve wants them to be even less independent, and even more submissive,  two traits which are not healthy for any adult human being.

Its also ironic that if you read his article,  10 reasons why you shouldn’t get a job, and apply each of his reasons to the working conditions of his slaves, you see that his slaves would be getting far, far worse conditions than those he mentions as reasons for not to get a traditional employment based job.

3. All signs of the beginning of a cult.

For a long time, nearly since he started his forums, Steve Pavlina and many members of his audience have been showing all signs of being part of a cult. No criticism of Steve Pavlina is allowed, and no matter what he says or does, they agree with him, and if anyone doesn’t, he/she is chastised by others.

So far, that’s been restricted to the internet. However with this arrangement, where Steve will be living with these people, they would be calling him ‘Master’, and there would be sex involved, its starting to look a lot more like a cult.  Here’s what a member of his forums said:

“It does have all the hallmarks of being like a cult religion type set-up right down to the suggestion of sex as an enticement.”

Here are some other characteristics of cults apply to this arrangement, taken from this page:

1. Absolute loyalty.
2. Isolation from outside
3. Lack of privacy
4. Financial investment
5. Assigned relationships
6. Behavior Modification
7. Peer pressure
8. Conformity
9. Blind acceptance
10. Altered diet

What if this was a joke / April’s Fools?

This isn’t. The tone of the article is way too serious, and he has everything planned out way too seriously for it to be a joke. It was published on April’s Fools only as a backup strategy for Steve, i.e, if there are no applicants for this, or if there’s too much backlash, he can simply claim that it was all a big joke, ha ha, and the members of his online cult remain indoctrinated.

However, if he does go through with this, then everyone who objects to slavery, and/or exploiting the naivety of a socially unstable person, should boycott any of the new products Steve Pavlina releases, in whose production/sales slavery is playing any part. Moreover, if you are in the U.S or Las Vegas area, the proper authorities should be alerted if he went through with his plan.

If you are yourself considering becoming Steve Pavlina’s  ’slave’, please have enough self respect to not fall for this. Not only would you be doing yourself harm by calling a man like him ‘master’, being entirely dependent on him for everything, thus losing your freedom, you would also be in a dangerous situation, especially if you are a woman.

More at Steve Pavlina Lies by an anonymous author.

I’ve decided to take the forums offline, because they get nothing but spam. I expected vBulletin to have some spam prevention built in, but evidently it has nothing, because the forums had 4300 bot members, 3192 spam threads, and 5700 spam posts at last count. It’s just easier to use Twitter or Facebook than host forums.

I haven’t had time to write new articles lately, but if you would like to make a guest post on Steve Pavlina Watch, just write it and send it to richard@stevepavlina.org with your byline and web URL. Make sure to keep all guest posts civil, relevant, and of the same or better quality as my posts!

Steve announced today that he is releasing all of his material except his book into the public domain. This is quite shocking, because people can take credit for his work and make money off it with no royalties to him if his work is public domain. Most of the publications of the U.S. government are in the public domain, so Steve’s work is on this level now.

I have to say this sounds like a very positive and generous decision. The most liberal license I release my work under is the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License for my photography, but I never considered making my work public domain because of the total and irrevocable loss of ownership. Perhaps Steve knows something I don’t?

Anyway, he’s already added a request for PayPal donations to the bottom of all his blog posts, so this may result in a net increase to his income if many people donate.

Good work Steve!

A person named “Shakra” posted this comment on StevePavlina.org today. I think it’s worth reading:

I got myself banned from stevepavlina.com today… for posting the following:

Sorry Steve.. I have to call BS on this..

I dont believe marriage isnt necessarily the pinnacle of human relationships.

In my personal opinion, RESPECT and LOVE is the highest pinnacle of ALL human relationships.

With mutual respect and love, a relationship can flourish. Without it, the relationship will wither and die..

In my opinion, if my partner was an internet “celebrity” I certainly would not want the ins and outs of our relationship demise published on the internet for all to see, comment upon etc. Especially if the primary reasons where that a) I dont eat raw food and b) I dont want to participate in sadomasochistic sexual situations…

You are appearing to me as a polarized darkworker.

What I see is a man who has made the decision to explore polyamory regardless of the effect it will have (and has had) on his family.

Perhaps Steve will realise this when his kids friends start coming across this information all over the internet in years to come.

Steve, I belive that Erin is and was deserving of a lot more respect. She let you go and “play” with your new chicks… and still she offers you full support…

I can guarantee that you have damaged Erin as part of this process… I feel her holding back in her posts. She wants to tell you, but is afraid of how you will react… YOU BROKE HER HEART. SHE IS STILL SUFFERING..

vBulletin Message
You have been banned for the following reason:
personal attack
Date the ban will be lifted: Never

My personal opinion is that Erin is unhappy and wanted to stay in a monogamous relationship with Steve, but he did not want this. While this is just muckraking, she did write this post on her blog on Nov. 8, 2010, where she said this:

The First Three Months
The first three months after we separated were really tough for me. I was sick when we decided to divorce and I didn’t actually get better for three months. The stress of separation along with the stress of moving, and the adjustment to single life obviously took its toll on me. One thing that kept me going was that I had just signed up for my CERT class (Community Emergency Response Team) and was so excited to be taking that class that it kept me from slipping into fear or depression. My friends and family rallied around me and helped me immeasurably. I felt supported and loved by my friends, and I’m positive they made a huge difference in how I adjusted to the loss of my marriage.

The first three months I spent many a night lying in bed with tears rolling down my face. I’m a very emotional person, and I was feeling so many different emotions like fear, sadness, anxiety and loneliness. For a couple of weeks I had a lot of trouble sleeping. My friend Vicki helped me see that I was grieving the loss of what I thought my life was going to be and that I needed to begin to see the new possibilities that life offered. Metaphorically, I was looking longingly at the path Steve and I had been on with all its possibilities and love, instead of looking with power and hope ahead on the path I was now on. Another friend, Todd, spent countless hours on the phone with me, just listening to my thoughts and fears and desires. He’s the most amazing listener ever. And my other friend, Dana, kept encouraging and empowering me and not letting me wallow. He helped me see my own greatness, which gave me a lot of confidence in myself.

While Erin goes on to say that she took control of her life and her emotions after the first three months, I still think it’s sad and their separation was non-mutual. In my opinion, Steve’s divorce is contrary to the spirit of personal growth.

On the surface, Steve’s article from 2010-10-16, Go Hunting makes a logical point. If you are going to eat meat everyday, you should kill an animal yourself, at least once. I don’t eat any animals except fish, but I have gone fishing (unsuccessfully). However, Steve suggests you can extend this idea to many other areas of your life, which is utterly unsustainable.

“There are lots of ways to extend the ideas in this article of course. Food choices are just one application. The overall point is that if you can’t bring yourself to participate in the processes you’re supporting right now through your choices, then do you really respect those processes?

So if you use gasoline, does that mean you have to visit an oil refinery? If you are an American taxpayer, do you have to visit Iraq and Afghanistan? If you use a computer, do you have to know programming? Or are you being disrespectful because you can’t bring yourself to participate in the process you’re supporting by using a computer?

“Go Hunting” is on shaky ground to begin with. It certainly should not be extended to other domains.

Steve used to write articles that were genuinely helpful, but now he continually slaps his loyal readers in the face—the same readers who buy his book, go to his workshops, and click his affiliate links.

In his latest article, Mr. Pavlina tells us that he made a discovery on a three-week road trip: he really needs to tell his readers to go to hell.

“So if you’re reading this website, and you feel the urge to contact me with your feedback, question, proposal, etc., don’t do it. If that bothers you, well… I suppose you’ll have to get used to disappointment. I don’t even care to receive typo reports — people will still be able to figure out the message, despite the Typo Gremlin’s mischief.”

Translation:

“I am a creative genius who answers to no one. Go to hell, you worthless pawns.”

You can just feel to bitter arrogance in Steve’s words. He is an atheist who believes man is the measure of all things—therefore he is a God, omnipresent and infallible. He doesn’t even take responsibility for his own typographical errors, instead blaming the “Typo Gremlin.” At the very least he could replace the final words with “despite my failure at proof-reading,” but instead, he completely absolves himself of error. Moving on…

“So what’s the growth lesson here? Perhaps it would be wise for you to do your own soul-searching. Are your communication channels adding tremendous value to your life, or are they simply wasting your precious life?”

Steve believes he is teaching you a lesson. On the one hand, he claims to reject the title of “self-help guru.” On the other hand, he constantly talks down to his readers. Mr. Pavlina is saying that he has already searched his soul and exorcised an energy vampire. Now he is graciously giving you a cheat sheet, because you could never figure it out on your own. While Steve claims to be empowering you, he is a psychology expert who crafts his articles to weaken you and make you dependent on him. Then he complains that you are too “needy.”

“Another aspect is that many of the messages I receive are very needy. [...] A person who is ready to change will do a lot more than send a casual email to someone they’ve never met; by and large these people simply aren’t serious. They’re doing what’s easy because they’re hoping to avoid having to do what’s hard, such as quitting the meaningless job or leaving the unfulfilling relationship.”

So a needy loser’s first instinct is to send an email to a popular self-help expert who will tell him to man up and quit his job? Steve claims these losers are merely looking to validate their dispassionate lives. Why then would they write to him? Wouldn’t they talk to their family or friends, who are sure to support them? Certainly, sending an email to a stranger takes more courage than talking with family. In reality, Steve gives bad advice and then complains when people don’t follow his misguided logic.

Steve consistently upholds the logical fallacy that what’s hard is what’s right and the easier path is regressive. Of course, this is utter bullshit. What’s harder: staying committed in a marriage on the rocks or bailing out and chasing other women? What’s more difficult: digesting the real world or embracing infantile, magical beliefs about “subjective” reality? Is is cowardly to run from a gunman when the alternative is to stand your ground and be killed? Should you sweep your driveway with a toothbrush because it is more difficult than using a broom? Do you “avoid having to do what’s hard” when you drive a car rather than walk? What about riding a bicycle? Is that also cowardly? Perhaps you are a coward for walking unencumbered when you could be carrying a 75-pound backpack?

Tell me this, Steve: what’s harder? Cutting off your readers or actually listening to them? I know you would say severing communications requires a ruthless tactician, whereas listening to your audience would make you a spineless jellyfish. But in reality, you’re taking the coward’s way out.

I also unfollowed the 300+ people I’d been following on Twitter. It’s not because I don’t like them. It’s because when I follow someone, they can send me direct messages there, which creates yet another inbox for me. Twitter doesn’t seem to provide a way to disable DMs, so this is the only viable solution I can see.

Steve, we’re not idiots. Tony Robbins and Wayne Dyer weren’t bombarding you with direct messages. The people you were following weren’t sending you any direct messages, and if they were, you could just selectively remove them instead of mass-unfollowing everyone. The real reason you did this is this image:

And you want to provoke this response:

“OMG LOOK HOW IMPORTANT STEVE IS!!! 13,000+ PEOPLE FOLLOW HIM BUT HE FOLLOWS 0 PEOPLE!!! OMG HE IS SO IMPORTANT, AWESOME, AND INDEPENDENT!!! MOVE OVER JESUS—STEVE PAVLINA IS HERE TO REPLACE YOU!!!”

Sorry Steve, we’re not children. We know you’re a narcissist having a mid-life crisis, and we know as soon as the wind shifts you will transform like a chameleon.

“Does this mean I’m becoming anti-social and hiding behind a virtual wall? It’s really the opposite of that. I’d rather connect with interesting people face to face instead of receive messages via the Internet.”

Oh really, Steve? If that’s the truth, why don’t you shut down your website and tour the world? If you want to connect with people face-to-face, why are you broadcasting messages to needy strangers you don’t want to hear from? You believe you’re special. You send messages via the Internet, but heaven forbid someone should wish you to receive one. Like a typical con-artist, you spit on our cupcakes and call it frosting. The whole point of “Putting a Brick in My Mailbox” is to put a wall between you and your readers, and then you have the audacity to suggest you are doing the opposite. Shame on me for expecting more from someone who brags about being a petty shoplifter.

“Here’s an extra travel tip: Do NOT eat the nachos made with 10 different kinds of beans in Banff an hour before driving to Calgary!”

Oh great, a joke about flatulence. Real high-class, Steve. I totally understand why your website is Personal Development for Smart People.

“People who only communicate with me via the Internet seldom provide actionable feedback; they’re almost always projecting some aspect of their psyches onto me, as a way of asking me to solve the problem within themselves that they aren’t ready to face yet. They don’t understand the details of my situation well enough to be of help.”

Quid pro quo, Steve:

“People who I only communicate with via the Internet seldom receive actionable feedback; I’m almost always projecting some aspect of my psyche onto them, as a way of asking them to solve the problem within myself that I am not ready to face yet. I don’t understand the details of their situations well enough to be of help.”

There are two sides to every story, and we are tired of hearing only yours.

One interesting thing about Steve Pavlina’s blog is that while its popularity increases, Steve writes fewer and fewer articles. I assume most of his traffic is from his high Google ranking. This whole month, he has written only one real article (Hacking Reality: Subjective Objectivity), and it’s already the 25th of the month.

He wrote a post about his Facebook fan page (useless to most), a post about why he won’t be blogging (because of a road trip), and an affiliate post for a product called PhotoReading (also useless). In his only article for Sept. 2010, he once again compares his brain to a computer’s operating system. Instead of playing it safe or resorting to bombastic spectacle, he suggests you develop your life story into something interesting but congruent. Steve’s life story became interesting when he started shoplifting. What will be the next act of your life story? Perhaps a career in robbing banks?

If your life is a story, then you are living an auto-biography. Most celebrities led boring lives pre-stardom, so they make up stuff in their auto-biographies. Things like “my Daddy raped me” and “I was so strung out I chopped up my dog with a hatchet.” Then, an insider reveals the truth, and the tabloids have a field day.

Do you really want to live a biography? Won’t that result in a lot of painful, detrimental actions? Sure, the story of Bonnie and Clyde became interesting when they were pulverized by machine guns, but does that mean they got what they wanted? An interesting story?

The truth is, your life is NOT a story, and Steve Pavlina is remiss to suggest it. Stories are read and forgotten. Your life will be forgotten. However, you can’t forget the life you are living now because it is inescapable. You can’t change roles or leave the theater—you are always the same person. Do you really want to do daring, dangerous things for the benefit of spectators? Will spectators be there when you break a leg or land a ten-year prison sentence? Will anyone even care? The answer is no—except you.

Assassination was the best thing that could have ever happened to John Lennon’s career. It’s obviously a great story, because it has inspired dozens of books and movies. Does that mean you should get an assassin, to spice up your life story? Of course not. Don’t live subjectively. Play it safe, don’t get into fights, don’t shoplift. Dying young has no benefits. The cold objective reality is death, and no amount of subjectivity can change that. Your mission is to cheat death for as long as possible.

Steve Pavlina says living subjectively is the same as life in a dream world. This is false because you are able to dream within your “dream.” When you go to sleep, your dreams are markedly different from the waking world, and you know they are dreams once you wake up—or even while you are in the dream in the case of lucid dreaming. While dreams often involve dreams within dreams, or you may “wake up” from a lucid dream only to find yourself still in a dream (and unaware), once you awaken for real you recognize everything before was a dream.

Now someone may say that I have merely not “woke up” from the matrix of reality, but if I am able to recognize the possibility of life being a dream, evaluate it, and reject it, how could it possibly be true? If you are aware of the construct of a dream world while dreaming, you generally become lucid. How is it that so many people are “asleep” on this planet? “Because I’ve manifested it” is not a valid answer, because it merely degenerates into circular logic.