Let Them Buy: How Capitalism Co-opted Spirituality
Late-stage capitalism spiritually bankrupt us
A little blurb on my own religious background ⬆️
Let Them Theory Explained
The Let Them theory, popularized by Mel Robbins, is a mindset tool encouraging acceptance of others’ choices and actions. It’s about focusing on what you can control instead of exhausting yourself trying to control everything else. For some, that brings peace. You can read more in her massively successful book: The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins.
Nuanced Housekeeping
I do not want my intentions to be misunderstood, so let me break down a little nuance before we get deeper into this post.
This is not a personal attack on anyone who finds comfort in the Let Them theory. I believe we hear the spiritual messages we are meant to hear when we are ready. If this book is what cracked open your growth, then I truly support that. I am not here to diminish that moment for you.
Mel Robbins has already been accused of allegedly copying a previous poem titled Let Them. You can read an interview with the original poet’s perspective here. I am not here to get into that.
In the most grounded way possible, I do not care about Mel Robbins personally. I do not know her. She is allowed to write a successful book. This is not about her character. It is a critique of the work itself, the cultural response to it, and what that reveals about our society.
Let Them Be a Fan
The viral spread of the Let Them theory says more about the spiritual void we are in than it does about the book itself. It shows how capitalism both creates the wound and sells us the bandage. We are deeply hungry for guidance, for values, for meaning. And when a simple phrase like Let Them becomes the thing that fills that hunger, we need to ask why.
My experience as a white American often feels like living inside low culture. We do not have many shared value systems anymore. Our culture is consumption. So anything that sounds profound, even if it’s ancient wisdom in a new outfit, becomes a hit.
Let Them is not a new idea. It is an echo. It is a remix of teachings that have existed forever taught in religions, spiritual traditions, and quiet conversations over tea.
Mel’s December 2024 Instagram post shows a whole carousel of fans getting Let Them tattoos:
am not here to mock spiritual tattoos. I have my mom’s handwriting inked on my wrist that says this too shall pass:
But the volume and speed of the Let Them craze? That is worth pausing on.
Let Them is a Religious Concept
Let Them is not just a productivity hack. It mirrors religious and spiritual teachings like:
Giving it up to God
Surrendering
Unattachment
Radical acceptance
These are not new phrases. These are not new virtues. They are time tested and already lived. What we are seeing is not the birth of a theory. It is the forgetting and the rebranding of something ancient.
We Do Not Have Culture and It’s Not our Fault
When you push capitalism to its extremes, what we now live in, you get a culture where work becomes the only shared identity. It replaces community, religion, art, and rest. And once work becomes the dominant cultural export, there is little space left to create anything else.
We clock in, we clock out, we scroll, we sleep, and we call that life. We do not design, contemplate, or contribute to slow culture because we are too exhausted trying to survive fast capitalism. And that is not a personal failing. That is systemic design.
We live in a country where we are so tapped out we do not even know what our neighbors believe in, let alone what color their house is. It is not that Americans do not have taste, it is that we are too burnt out to cultivate it. Too overworked to explore deeper questions of meaning. And so we default to what is packaged and pre approved. What is trending. What is easy to digest even when it is meant to be soul food.
So now, spiritual wisdom, centuries old, rooted in complex histories and cultures, is flattened into carousel posts and rebranded self help books. We trade real reverence for 15 second Instagram hits. It is not just about Let Them. It is the larger trend of borrowing sacred language and detaching it from any original context. That is how capitalism works. It extracts, polishes, and sells it back to us.
What I am Actually Worried About
I am not mad that people are finding peace through the Let Them theory. I am worried that we have become so spiritually starved that we need a viral book or tattoo trend to remind us of something our grandmothers already knew.
This is not about gatekeeping spiritual truths, it is about the pipeline we are getting them from. When every meaningful insight gets filtered through monetization and mass appeal, we risk diluting the depth that made them powerful in the first place.
I love that people are feeling moved. That is beautiful. But what happens when the trend dies? When the next wave hits and we need a new mantra to cope?
We should not have to wait for Mel Robbins, Oprah, or the next guru to tell us how to connect to something higher. Your intuition, your ancestors, your body, your gut, these are all valid sources of spiritual truth.
So yes, Let Them can be a gateway. But do not stop there. Go deeper. Ask where these values really came from. Ask who said it before, and why we forgot. Talk to someone you wouldn’t normally talk to. Ask grandparents (if you’re lucky to have any alive) about their values.
Because spirituality is not a fad. It is a practice. And you do not need to buy your way into it.
But again, if Let Them Theory lit you up, I love that for you and keep going!