Sunday, October 23, 2011
Oh Harrisburg!
Poor Harrisburg, can't catch a break! Not only is there no money (the city is broke -in more ways then one!-, and trying to go into chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy protection). Our Mayor Linda Thompson is increasingly the laughingstock not only of Pennsylvania but now the whole country... Current TV commentator Keith Olbermann (who I think very highly of!) featured Thompson in his
'Worst Persons' during the Oct 20th broadcast of "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a video up for this episode). For the record the prayer-vigil to "heal" the cities fiscal woes has not met with favor from-on-high. Maybe the mayor just isn't righteous enough to attract the attention of him on high? Who can say...
The Denial of Death By Ernest Becker
I very recently saw (thank you so very much Netflix adviser!) a powerful documentary
Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (the trailer can be watched here http://wp.flightfromdeath.com/ ), one of those that really haunt you, and make you see everything in a very different light. But also admittedly, paradoxically, a dark light. Fairly recently had the revelation that everything in the (human) world can ultimately be reduced to human psychology. All the "great and weighty issues" of the day, are actually about the workings of human psyches. Is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict about land?, politics?, religion?, resources? Or..? about the ego's and identities of these peoples in conflict? Sure there are these other issues, but behind them, and the reason they fail to come to some kind of resolution is the very things that they are talking about in the video. Their beliefs about themselves and a very destructive inability to get beyond them. (without seeing the video the above probably really won't make any sense, sorry!)
"Following the work of the late cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Denial of Death, this documentary explores the ongoing research of a group of social psychologists that may forever change the way we look at ourselves and the world."
Again need to say, the documentary is a definite eye-opener! Worth watching. I'm in the middle of reading the Ernest Becker book (available through Amazon in paperback. Not easy reading, and Becker is just too much the apologist for Freud's personal hangups, but still, excellent! I find myself wondering if Becker knew (or could acknowledge) Freud's major cocaine addiction!?).
Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (the trailer can be watched here http://wp.flightfromdeath.com/ ), one of those that really haunt you, and make you see everything in a very different light. But also admittedly, paradoxically, a dark light. Fairly recently had the revelation that everything in the (human) world can ultimately be reduced to human psychology. All the "great and weighty issues" of the day, are actually about the workings of human psyches. Is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict about land?, politics?, religion?, resources? Or..? about the ego's and identities of these peoples in conflict? Sure there are these other issues, but behind them, and the reason they fail to come to some kind of resolution is the very things that they are talking about in the video. Their beliefs about themselves and a very destructive inability to get beyond them. (without seeing the video the above probably really won't make any sense, sorry!)
"Following the work of the late cultural anthropologist, Ernest Becker, and his Pulitzer Prize-winning book Denial of Death, this documentary explores the ongoing research of a group of social psychologists that may forever change the way we look at ourselves and the world."
Again need to say, the documentary is a definite eye-opener! Worth watching. I'm in the middle of reading the Ernest Becker book (available through Amazon in paperback. Not easy reading, and Becker is just too much the apologist for Freud's personal hangups, but still, excellent! I find myself wondering if Becker knew (or could acknowledge) Freud's major cocaine addiction!?).
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