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

Here's A Thought

05/01/24 • 14 min

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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

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Theme music courtesy of Pixabay Music

05/01/24 • 14 min

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