Who Moved My Cheese?: An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

This book is a bestseller? A smashing hit which has “changed the lives of millions”? Try to “criticize” it and you automatically become one of thos... (show more)

This book is a bestseller? A smashing hit which has “changed the lives of millions”? Try to “criticize” it and you automatically become one of those “overanalyzing” bigot/liberal/radicals? Hmm... Too delicious to pass by. I would be honored to be referred to in this context. Let’s carefully peel off the protective layer of this built in “criticism warning” and try to determine what makes this paper golem, created by Dr. Johnson, pulsate with life.
The characters: Mice: Sniff and Scurry. Little people: Hem and Haw. Big people ( who exist behind the curtain, obviously).
Sniffs and Scurry don’t overanalyze things. They move on in search of new “Chucky Jesus/Cheesus.” The “Littlemen,” on the otherhand, overanalyze everything and so naturally the story is about them.
If proper consideration was given to every ad in this book (and there are pages and pages of them) about the nature of this “masterpiece” that has “the rare ability to be interesting, provocative and succinct,” then it should be considered as nothing short of a mini-cult. People who are not immune to this intellectual rubbish will start rambling like the characters of this book and will begin to associate themselves with mice or “little people,” giving the role of “Big People” to someone else. Actually, this option simply does not exist. You are asked to associate yourselves with either “little people” or “mice” (read: poor people or illegal aliens, which means roughly 95% of the population). This pamphlet is nothing short of an instruction guide for the above on how to behave themselves and keep believing in Myth of Cheesy World, where there are two deities: Mickey Mouse (naturally, the “false deity” for aliens, who think that Disney World is a paradise on Earth) and Cheesus (the true god who can bring you eternal peace and happiness).
Mickey Mouse people have very good instincts, but... no brains. You see, they “don’t overanalyze” things simply because they don’t have the device to “overanalyze” it with. They are mice, for goodness’ sake. Cheesus people, on the other hand, have brains. Unfortunately these brains have been paralyzed by fear. The “yellow brick road” to happiness lies through... getting rid of infected brains and becoming like the mice - hard working, poor and not-thinking SOB’s who with amazing eaze find new Cheese/work and are happy to work for minimum wage. “Little people” with their worries have so much to learn from mice... Luckily for them, the mice don’t have this choice - they did not have to sacrifice their brains to find the Cheesus, they simply act out of survival instincts.
“If you do not change, you can become extinct” - writes Haw. Exactly. If you don’t perform a lobotomy on yourself and become a submissive dumbbell, like this “M.D.” author Spencer Johnson is telling you, you are in serious danger of being left alone with your thoughts. Is this the worst nightmare in America these days? To be left alone and contemplate the complexities of life instead of running around like a rabid lunatic who eats at McDonalds, watches MTV and thinks that he somehow has achieved a moral right to declare his moronic scribbles on the wall “THE handwriting on the wall” (Old Testament allusions?).
The “Big people” were wisely left out of the picture and are only referred to as “they.” “They” control the whole situation like a freckled boy with an outbreak of acne controls a maze box full of roaches and mice. These invisible “big people” control the environment for their “little people” and mice. Little people are conditioned to not even THINK about the “big people.” The whole ordeal is too complicated for their tiny brains, the best they can do is to “adapt” to change and not complain when “they” move the cheese.
“It is safer to search in the maze than remain in a cheeseless situation.” Typical Americanism. Keep running. Don’t stop. Change your beliefs (“Old beliefs do not lead you to New Cheese”). Whatever you do, you’ve got to adapt because you are the little man. The Big Man who you cannot even think about does not need to adapt. He preaches the adaptation to you.
“Adapting to the small changes, helps to adapt to bigger ones.” Dr. Johnson, where have you been?? Of course, now we know - the next time you hear the hurricane warning, adapt to the Change, you, little people and mice of New Orleans! Move on and search for a new Cheese!!
One thing is for certain - Spencer Johnson most certainly did not overanalyze his genius little plot of his for us. He “adapted” and realized that in order to find a Cheesy Paradise, he just needed to write a book free of intellectual sophistication. Lately it seems as if only these kind of books are becoming “bestsellers.”
“Change happens - they keep moving Cheese” - wrote Haw. “Change” in this context is a clear substitute for ‘s#&#.” Hem (a Western “Hamlet,” if you will) kept “overanalyzing” and stayed in a “cheeseless” situation (true American nightmare, I gather). It seems to me, he is the only one who, like Hamlet, makes an effort to analyze who these “they” might be. He is the only one with potential (very slim, that’s true) to become the One who moves the Cheese.
Well, Spencer Johnson is Kafka of a modern America. He created a world populated with four weird creatures, where Cheese is the ultimate prize, religion and success. This cheesy Utopia can rightly compete with Shamalan’s dreams in which he keeps electrocuting the population of the Maze. It looks like this book is giving a subtle description of our society. This book also has its counterpart in the movie called “the Secret” and resembles the general scheme of the books by notorious con-artist, Kevin Trudeau. It used to be the formula of “How to become a millionaire?” Now it is “Want to become a millionaire? Then tell a story which convinces the “little people” that they have a “choice.” Tell the populus something profoundly pathetic and don’t forget to include the typical propaganda band wagon step that everyone absolutely loves, including the New York Times, the staff of which could barely contain the bowel movement in ecstasy after reading it.”
This is a tale in the times of the Idiocracy (a prophetic movie disguised as a comedy).. The cassandric words of Susan Jacoby in her latest book “The Age of American Unreason” proved to be true: “The nation’s memory and attention span may already have sustained so much damage that they cannot be revived by the best efforts of America’s best minds…” These days all hope for intelligent story-telling with creative characters is lost. I realized that when this garbage was presented to teachers in a graduate program as a “masterpiece” to be reflected on. Maybe we deserve “bestsellers” like this, after all. We are what we buy and admire, after all. “We buy therefore we am,” so to speak. In a truly genius novel by John Steinbeck “Of Mice and Men” both categories - men and mice suffer incredibly, mice usually die suffocated by Lenny, Lennies dies suffocated by their dreams. The only way to the next Cheese room is to betray Lenny (like Haw betrayed Hem) and move on. Dr. Johnson thought he provided us with an alternative, Hollywood ending of the story - mice survive and men “find their way” to the next Cheese room. Unfortunately, it is my belief that it is better to be slaughtered like Lenny than to live in this sick Maze where Cheese is as the ultimate goal.
Are you still willing to make the choice of who you are in this “tale”? Have you been convinced by a hologram of lively debate presented after the tale? Or would you rather demand control over the maze “they” tell you you HAVE to live in and be
happy with what they give you? I’ve made my choice - I am turning Spencer Johnson and those alike into “roachpeople” and will start my own experiment on them. (show less)