Aspects of the American Salesman Mythos

By P. Emerson Williams

Following the threads of any far-reaching narrative can be a treacherous task. If one is so inclined, one can find oneself tumbling down strange rabbit holes. These rabbit holes may reveal actual events and connections, or they may be created by the human mind's tendency to impose patterns over random sets of facts. The trick is to discern between an understanding of a set of facts and narratives that allows one to understand a simpler overarching order to the complexity or if prejudices and blind spots distort this understanding of the facts.

Central to the how the American mythos of success and power relates to the individual is through narratives of salemanship. The ability to sell supercedes the ability to produce goods and services. The reason the government and businesses put so much energy into controlling media is so narratives that contradict their sales pitch are not heard by a critical mass of the populace. Just as a dude at a bar who is trying to score doesn't want his rap spoiled by someone who knows him telling a story that runs counter to his tale of aggrandizement. (Or sensitivity, or erudition, or wealth – whatever narrative that works best with the hearer.)

After troops were deployed to Iraq and Afganistan one arrow in the quivver of the domestic and diplomatic effort was that we were bringing "Democracy" and "Freedom" to these countries. "Ah", said some citizens, breathing easier. "We're there to sell these unfortunates on our most precious commodity!"

The Basic Principles of True and Lasting Success - An Inquiry into the Psychical World of Napoleon Hill

by David Metcalfe

"......there is abundant evidence that in many forms of modern thought -- especially the so-called "prosperity" psychology, "will-power building" metaphysics and systems of "high-pressure" salesmanship -- black magic has merely passed through a metamorphosis, and although its name may be changed, its nature remains the same."

- Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy, 1969

Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill is perhaps the most popular success book available. As an integral part of the contemporary corporate mythos, it's a primer for the 'culture of success' that runs bloody and gorged with oxygen through economically fevered executive minds of the managerial class. Published in 1937 it has remained on Business Week's best seller list for over 70 years. In the 2007 list Business Week has it placed alongside contemporary selections such as Freakonomics, The World is Flat, and The Tao of Warren Buffett.

Have you ever read this book? Am I alone in my mystification with it?

I'd heard it mentioned so many times by key note speakers at corporate conferences, referenced in business literature, heralded by executives offering me advice on my career, that it never occurred to me to actually look at the book itself. When I did I was quite surprised with what it advised.

Researching William Walker Atkinson, whose prolific pseudonymous publications popularized Mind Science, Telepathy, Hermeticism and American Yoga in the early 20th century, lead me to reconsider my preconceptions of works like Hill's. It also became impossible to ignore the strange imaginative associations that a head full of esoterica and alchemy will import to titles from other success literature I ran into like The Richest Man in Babylon, The 48 Laws of Power, and The Master Key. Further peaking my interest, even an innocuous title such as The Greatest Salesman in the World, by Og Mandino, contains a frame story based in some nebulous Middle Eastern city with a main character named Hafid who discovers the 10 sacred scrolls of success.

This all seemed kind of odd to me, I can't really picture any of the executives I know being particularly taken by orientalist mystique. Some of these success books were looking remarkably similar to 18th century narrative grimoires like Treasure of the Old Man of the Pyramids.

And then I actually opened the 25 cent copy of Think and Grow Rich I'd picked up at a library sale while collecting New Thought material...

Chapter 11 - The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
THE meaning of the word "transmute" is, in simple language, "the changing, or transferring of one element, or form of energy, into another." The emotion of sex brings into being a state of mind. Because of ignorance on the subject, this state of mind is generally associated with the physical, and because of improper influences, to which most people have been subjected, in acquiring knowledge of sex, things essentially physical have highly biased the mind. The emotion of sex has back of it the possibility of three constructive potentialities, they are:-- 1. The perpetuation of mankind. 2. The maintenance of health, (as a therapeutic agency, it has no equal). 3. The transformation of mediocrity into genius through transmutation.

This wasn't what I was expecting from an exegesis on Hill's maxim "whatever the human mind can conceive, the human mind can achieve."

Nor was I expecting to find...

Chapter 14 - The Sixth Sense, The Door to the Temple of Wisdom the 13th Step Towards Riches
THE "thirteenth" principle is known as the SIXTH SENSE, through which Infinite Intelligence may, and will communicate voluntarily, without any effort from, or demands by, the individual. This principle is the apex of the philosophy. It can be assimilated, understood, and applied ONLY by first mastering the other twelve principles. The SIXTH SENSE is that portion of the subconscious mind which has been referred to as the Creative Imagination. It has also been referred to as the "receiving set" through which ideas, plans, and thoughts flash into the mind. The "flashes" are sometimes called "hunches" or "inspirations." The sixth sense defies description! It cannot be described to a person who has not mastered the other principles of this philosophy, because such a person has no knowledge, and no experience with which the sixth sense may be compared. Understanding of the sixth sense comes only by meditation through mind development from within. The sixth sense probably is the medium of contact between the finite mind of man and Infinite Intelligence, and for this reason, it is a mixture of both the mental and the spiritual. It is believed to be the point at which the mind of man contacts the Universal Mind.

I'd really like to know how unwitting executives who buy this book approach these final chapters. With a 70 year run, and several million copies in circulation, there are a lot of potential clairvoyant sex magicians out there.