In our 15 year history, we have addressed a wide range of topics. It is a rare episode which tackles a new topic, an even rarer one in which we tackle a new topic with such direct relevance to so many earlier shows. Today's show fits that description, examining the theories of cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, that fear of our own mortality is a topic of unparalleled importance - but one that human psychology encourages us to shy away from rather than to properly address. For an example of the dangers of living without due skepticism of "immortality symbols" we conclude with part 3 of our ongoing adaption of Allan Francovich's film about Operation Gladio.
Many thanks are due to Dave Pierce for this episode.
This episode is dedicated to Lilli Pierce, without whom it would never have been made.
Back in 2013, an Unwelcome Guests listener named Dave Pierce recommended me a book entitled The Denial Of Death by David Becker. He recommended Becker's book to me as my mother was dying of cancer. I took me some time to locate a copy and to assimilate the new ideas. Becker's insights are spectacular both in their simplicity and also in the breadth of their applicability. They are, however, nothing if not confronting. In his lifetime, Becker's work was little appreciated, and his two most important books were only posthumously published. His thoughts, though dismissed by many at the time as untestable and therefore unscientific, offered a road map to later psychologists who have backed up several of his main ideas with compelling experimental evidence. We begin the show with a few words from David Pierce, who originally sent me the book recommendation after he himself was recommended the book just after his daughter's tragic death.
Our main piece this week is a radio adaption of the film Flight From Death, which provides a solid introduction into the ideas of Earnest Becker as published in his 1974 book, The Denial of Death. Somewhat similar to how Charles Eisenstein synthesized a lot of ideas from a range of disciplines, Becker's ideas were also cross-disciplinary. He has been credited with developing a "science of evil", though he never lived to see much of the increasing interest now being shown in his ideas. Why since beginning of recorded history, have humans have been treating each other so badly? His work connects some very important dots - not the least providing a fuller understanding of the war on terror. The film echoes and connects up many episodes from earlier episodes of the show. As an example of what i mean by this, we follow the film with a couple of minutes from "Living Here And Now" (episode 644), in which William Irvine (author of "A Guide To The Good Life, The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy") recommends 'negative visualization' as a practical way to achieve a more wholesome and satisfying life. We conclude the show with another installment of the best film that will ever be made on the most infamous Western European deep state terrorist network - Allan Francovich's 1992 Timewatch expose of Operation Gladio. This week, how Gladio started to be exposed after the Gladiotori acted against the Caribinieri.
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