What Marie Kondo says about our new era of self-help

What Marie Kondo says about our new era of self-help Getty Images Each decade has a break-out self-help star, like today’s current queen of clean. Kondo gives us a moral licence to throw things away without guilt.” The core of a self-help book comprises three themes – a secret method; a process based on ancient advice and the inclusion of a stunning ‘origin’ anecdote The idea of this Japanese Mary Poppins being seen as a self-help guru isn’t as strange as it may appear. I’m just the path for someone who wants to try something new.” Alamy Tony Robbins made his way from infomercials to the silver screen, here with Jack Black in 2001's Shallow Hal Then came the biggest TV self-help guru of all – Oprah Winfrey, in the 1990s. What Kondo’s work does very well is convey that simple and practical changes to one’s everyday life can have a big impact – Daniel Nehring “When the big social problems seem so very intractable, the moral grammar provided by self-help entrepreneurs Marie Kondo and Rhonda Byrne becomes very attractive and very plausible.