Life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.

Curated by Jason Forrest

Total Runtime: 0:50:00

Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.^[1] Moral nihilists assert that morality does not inherently exist, and that any established moral values are abstractly contrived. Nihilism can also take epistemological, metaphysical, or ontological forms, meaning respectively that, in some aspect, knowledge is not possible, or that contrary to popular belief, some aspect of reality does not exist as such.

Peggy Lee - Is that all there is
Soft Cell - Sex Dwarf
Bobby Darin - Mack The Knife
Lotte Lenya canta "Alabama Song"
Nina Hagen New York New York
Screamin Jay Hawkins - I put a spell on you
Cindy & Bert - Der Hund Von Baskerville
JOY DIVISION - love will tear us apart
Mick Karn and Angie Bowie
Amanda Lear- Follow me
WENDY O WILLIAMS AND THE PLASMATICS Butcher baby, Live 1980
Siege - Live '84
Swans - I Crawled (Live in Malmö, May 4th, 2011)

Doc - Who's Afraid Of Wilhelm Reich?

An Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry

Curated by Markus Fiedler

Total Runtime: 1:34:38

Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897 – November 3, 1957) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, known as one of the most radical figures in the history of psychiatry. He was the author of several notable books, including The Mass Psychology of Fascism and Character Analysis, both published in 1933.

Reich worked with Sigmund Freud in the 1920s and was a respected analyst for much of his life, focusing on character structure rather than on individual neurotic symptoms. He tried to reconcile Marxism and psychoanalysis, arguing that neurosis is rooted in the physical, sexual, economic, and social conditions of the patient, and promoted adolescent sexuality, the availability of contraceptives, abortion, and divorce, and the importance for women of economic independence. His work influenced a generation of intellectuals, including Saul Bellow, William S. Burroughs, Paul Edwards, Norman Mailer, and A. S. Neill, and shaped innovations such as Fritz Perls's Gestalt therapy, Alexander Lowen's bioenergetic analysis, and Arthur Janov's primal therapy.

Later in life he became a controversial figure who was both adored and condemned. He began to violate some of the key taboos of psychoanalysis, developing body psychotherapy, using touch during sessions, and treating patients in their underwear to improve their "orgastic potency." He said he had discovered a primordial cosmic energy, which he said others called "God" and that he called "orgone." He built orgone energy accumulators that his patients sat inside to harness the reputed health benefits, leading to newspaper stories about sex boxes that cured cancer.

Reich was living in Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. On March 2 that year the Nazi newspaper,Völkischer Beobachter, published an attack on one of Reich's pamphlets, The Sexual Struggle of Youth. He left immediately for Vienna, then Scandinavia, moving to the United States in 1939. In 1947, following a series of articles about orgone in The New Republic and Harper's, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) obtained an injunction against the interstate sale of orgone accumulators. Charged with contempt for violating it, Reich conducted his own defense, which involved asking the judge to read his books and arguing that a court was no place to decide matters of science. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and in August 1956 several tons of his publications were burned by the FDA, one of the most notable examples of censorship in the history of the United States. He died in jail of heart failure just over a year later, days before he was due to apply for parole.

Zen Buddhism - The Land Of The Disappearing Buddha

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism which originated in China during the 6th century CE as Chán. From China, Zen spread south to Vietnam, to Korea and east to Japan.

Curated by Markus Fiedler

Total Runtime: 0:51:52

1. The film opens with a shot of Tokyo (urban jungle) and a description of the rapid changes in Japanese society; against this background Buddhism in Japan is an oasis of stability. Yet this Buddhism is very different from Sri Lankan Buddhism, and shows the differences not only between the Theravada and the Mahayana, but between differing cultural influences (hence his question "If the Buddha from Sri Lanka met the Buddha from Japan, would they recognize each other?").

2. The film's first major segment looks at Zen Buddhism, in two contexts. The first is a session of sitting meditation (zazen) at a Tokyo restaurant, with the owner, Mr. Tahnee, striding purposefully among his meditating employees, and occasionally giving one a whack on the shoulders with a stick that the Zen monks named "encouragement." The second context is the house of a Zen master who teaches sword fighting and calligraphy. Because of its emphasis on experiencing the moment (every moment), and recognizing the transitory quality of life, Zen was very popular with the samurai class. In his calligraphy exercise the master draws an empty circle, which he describes as the "pinnacle of zen" (that is, Emptiness). The master also stresses that the Buddha is not something outside of us, but is indeed our very Self (this is the notion of the Buddha-nature inherent in all things, which is a central Zen idea).

3. After this, the narrator takes the bullet train to Kyoto, past Mt. Fuji. On the way he stops at a Shinto shrine (in which the deity is present in a sacred mirror), and at the head temple of the Soka Gakkai movement. Soka Gakkai is one of the "New Religions" in Japan, and is an offshoot of the Nichiren sect. As with most of the New Religions, they claim that their practice is the most appropriate for a degenerate age, and that every other practice is useless.

4. In Kyoto he meets with a hereditary leader of one of the Pure Land Sects, visits with a family that is one of its members, and visits with a factory owner (Mr. Sugita) who is a Pure Land devotee. There is also considerable introduction to Pure Land theology (depending for salvation on the grace of Amida Buddha, rather than on one's own efforts), and the notion of the bodhisattva as a Mahayana ideal.

5. After this Pure Land interlude, he goes back to looking at Zen Buddhism (as he says "with new eyes"): first an archery master, and then tea with two Zen tea masters (in both cases, showing the Zen emphasis on focused attention, and turning things from everyday life into religious practice). The final sections have him visiting two Zen monasteries, to speak with the abbots about Zen Buddhism. The first monastery has one of the famous "dry gardens" (with raked stones instead of grass), and the abbot gives him direct answers about the importance of meditation as a way to know oneself. In the second monastery (a Zen training monastery), the film closes with a sanzan (daily encounter) between master and disciple. Each disciple has been meditating on a koan, and comes to a meeting with the master to give a response to it. The master evaluates the disciple's response (since the koan is a a question with no answer, the content of the answer is irrelevant, what is important is the manner in which the answer is given), and then gives the disciple further instruction. This final sequence highlights the Zen claim that it is a "special teaching outside the scriptures," based on the direct intuition of one's inner nature. The teacher cannot give this to one, but he (or she) can try to point the student in the right direction.

Network Awesome - Fri, May 18

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Live Music Show - Nihilism in Music

0:50:00

Doc - Who's Afraid Of Wilhelm Reich?

1:34:38

Zen Buddhism - The Land Of The Disappearing Buddha

0:51:52

Trailer Trash - Jesus Christ

0:13:26

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