Yes, Deepak Chopra just blocked me on Twitter. Wild, huh?
I suppose everyone knows how Twitter works, but then I suppose a lot of things. That being the case, I’ll just explain that if you “follow” someone, their “tweets” or messages show up in your “timeline,” so you can zip through them and read whichever ones you like. If you’re following someone who takes a dislike to you, he or she can “block” you, which means you don’t receive their tweets. You can still go read the things at the author’s Twitter page, you just don’t have them plunked down in front of you automatically.
One thing about Twitter is that some people are fond of posting all kinds of treacly homilies and quoted witticisms. A lot of this makes me want to drop rotten tomatoes on them from a great height, and sometimes I do: a bushel of snark is just a click away, after all. Probably the best solution would be to just stay off the internet, but that’s hard, because I’m already there. Or something. But Deepak Chopra is another matter. I’ve always considered him one of the good guys for his contribution to holistic medicine, in particular. His Twitter stream, however, is full of things like this:
“To see ourself in everybody and everybody in ourself most certainly is love”
“The essence of beauty is bliss.”
“The universe is but a partial manifestation of our limitless capacity to become.”
“We have 3 bodies, physical, mental, spiritual. The physical reflects being, the mental knowing, and the spiritual our joyous creativity.”
Those are all from the last three hours. (!) Nothing to get upset about there, not a bit, except maybe, “Jesus, the BRANDING!” I mean, I’m a wacko transcendentalist myself — read some Alan Watts books years ago that ruined me for life, you understand — although I’m more partial to things like Zen monks having laughing fits in the funeral parlor. So the other day, it just got to me, and I let loose via Twitter:
@deepak_chopra There you go again, delineating the ineffable, when you should be tossing water balloons!
All right, not a gut-buster for you, maybe, but I thought that was so hilarious, especially shared between two hipster shyster shamans, that he’d zip down to Taos in a Learjet and we’d go have margaritas and steaks. I was even going to buy a new shirt. The next thing I know, however, his tweets aren’t showing up in my Twitter app (Tweetie), so I go to https://twitter.com/deepak_chopra and hit the “Follow” button again:
“You have been blocked from following this account at the request of the user,” it says.
NO! Really?
Am… am… I dead?! DEEPAK CHOPRA blocked me! (What will the children say?) And then I read the tweets, one after the other. Amazing. Suddenly I’m at a Taos tinkle-bell & incense poetry reading, and it hits me: there’s not a single joke, no hint of sarcasm, satire, or humor of any kind. Brutal, slick, and seamless, just no white belt and shoes… I have been here before, brothers and sisters!
Of course, this isn’t the local medicine man’s Twitter page, this is Chopra’s, and it’s hard to believe that the head of a world-wide media and marketing empire is glued to his laptop 24/7 cranking out the bliss blurbs. Those interns need a thrashing, though: if I’m a threat, he don’t get out much! (C’mon, Doc. I used to be a fan. I’ve defended you in nasty company. If no laughing is allowed, it’s not “whole-istic.”)
I think he does manage his own account, though: the shadow is too dark against the sleeve.
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
C’mon, John … what was the quote? Oh, yeah … “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.”
Später!
Well, exactly. I was just trying to be nice, but I feel some great satire coming on.
Someone who ought to know emailed me to say, “Well, *I* see his white belt & shoes! Congratulations.” Which obviously made my day!
Hi John
Apparently the blocking is a phenomenon happening to people who have lots of followers. (Chopra has over 79,000 followers) The twitter software has been known to randomly block people who comment at the pages of people like Chopra. Lance Armstrong has over a million followers and some people get blocked. It is nothing personal or to do with the comment, from what I understand has been explained.
Hi Beth!
I don’t honestly understand the reasoning here. Do you mean that Twitter is trying to slow the growth of big accounts to save bandwidth? Like GM making cars that break so people won’t overtax their production capacity?
Just read all the Chopra tweets you can stand. Not an edgy RT in the bunch. The blocking may be done with software, but the filtering is obvious.
Anyway, and I realize this is anathema to the tinkle bell & incense crowd (not counting you, my very realistic friend, among them!), the guy is just another preacher, sorry. They all are. Doesn’t mean they don’t do good for some folks, sometimes, but they’re only human beings — and relying on them for guidance has a way of chopping the legs out from under self-development. My little joke was right-on, too. Anyone who tells you what this world is has got his head right up his ass, and that includes me when I’m preaching, too.
(I did take it personally at the very first, but then realized my guardian angels were at work again.
)
Not in this to argue, but just look at the stupid Google ads over to the right…
Interesting….about blocked twitter and Depak and your take on ‘the preachers’…and of course we all LOVE to preach a little.
Maybe its not about anything BIG but just about paying attention…..hmmmmmmm
Hi Sheri, good to hear from you!
Keep in mind I’m being VERY polite here.
And you’re absolutely right about paying attention.
Congratulations, John! Seems to me you have been singled out for a great honor.
But even if you don’t see it that way (and I suspect you do), you may take comfort in the words of that other great teacher, Groucho Marx: “I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.”
Oh, it’s an honor, all right. My Jungian analyst in Zurich (yes, I have one
) already sent congratulations, too, so you’re in excellent company.
And thank you!
Now you’ve started something. Maybe we should all go to his Twitter page and say something that will tick him off and we can get blocked too! Why should you have all the fun?
We could shoot for the world record for the number of people to get blocked from a single Twitter account. Woohoo!
There are two things that immediately come to my mind:
1. Firstly, why can’t a great man like Deepak Chopra who has been blessed with so much fame and fortune take a simple tweet in his stride. How can something so trivial make him act negatively. He speaks of such lofty virtues which people should cultivate then why can’t he develop tolerance, open-mindedness and forgiveness. Does he expect all his followers to always shower eulogies on him.
2. Secondly, the account is not verified so most probably that isn’t Deepak Chopra at all… do you think a man of that stature will have only 79k followers. So you should be glad that this action has exposed an imposter who is trying to impersonate Deepak Chopra and acquire followers in his name. Such people build large accounts posing as celebrities and then sell those accounts to others.
An interesting take on the situation, Pramit, and thank you!
About your second point, though: why would a fake Chopra trying to build a large account go out of his way to block someone? Doesn’t make sense. Seems to me that the only person who’d do that is the real one. Who else would be so sensitive and react in this way? I still think it was the real guy or someone in his employ who did it. At any rate, I’m well rid of the incessant Twitter homilies.
Just checked your Twitter page: good Lord, 44K followers??? Is that just the way it is in India, or should I be following you, too?
By accident I noticed this article. A couple weeks ago I was following Deepak, and he was saying a bunch of really stupid quotes. So I Twitted something about how Deepak is saying some stupid quotes. Then I notice a direct message, from Deepak. (At the time, I had no clue they could see what you’re saying. I had just joined Twitter.) He called me an “angry person.” As if I’m reacting to my own issues and not the stupid things he’s saying. And I realized over time that his stupid quotes had stopped showing up. After investigating, I found out he had blocked me. He only wants to hear the love and adulation from his “fans.” Otherwise, you’re out. Btw, I’m rawveggies on Twitter.
Thanks for your comment!
I find that to be very mean and lacking compassion on his part. Quite the very ordinary, vindictive little man behind all the hype…
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