• How the movie "Civil War" Helped Me Find Meaning -- Where I Wasn't Looking

  • May 1 2024
  • Length: 14 mins
  • Podcast

How the movie "Civil War" Helped Me Find Meaning -- Where I Wasn't Looking

  • Summary

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    Going to see the movie Civil War, the 2024 release written and directed by Alex Garland, isn't like seeing most movies. You walk out of the theater with a lot to think about -- and maybe you walk out changed.

    What the experience has done for me is to help me embrace a philosophy proposed by Viktor Frankl, the 20th Century psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust and developed Logotherapy, based on the premise that a basic drive of humankind is to find meaning in life — no matter what the conditions of someone's life may be.

    His most famous work is the book Man’s Search for Meaning -- published in English in 1959, an immediate best-seller and, in 1991, called by the Library of Congress one of the ten most influential books in the U.S.

    If the term "tragic optimism" sounds contradictory to you, stick with me for a few minutes. You might find it as bracing, helpful -- and hopeful -- as I do.

    Opening Music by Oleg Kyrylkovv from Pixabay

    Support the Show.

    Do you have comments to share or an idea for an upcoming episode? Need something overthought? I'd love to hear from you!

    Email me at HeresAThought8@gmail.com
    Or, contact me on my website at www.JanMFlynn.net
    Or, DM me on Twitter: @JanMFlynnAuthor

    Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

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