Episode 99: Curing the Human Condition: On 'Wild Wild Country'

Weird Studies

Phil Ford and J. F. Martel

Society & Culture, Arts, Philosophy

4.8 • 688 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2021

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this never-before-released episode recorded in 2019, Phil and JF travel to rural Oregon through the Netflix docu-series, Wild Wild Country. The series, which details the establishment of a spiritual community founded by Bhagwan Rajneesh (later called Osho) and its religious and political conflicts with its Christian neighbors, provides a starting point for a wide-ranging conversation on the nature of spirituality and religion. What emerges are surprising ties between the “spiritual, not religious” attitude and class, cultural commodification, and the culture of control that pervades modern society. But they also uncover the true “wild” card at the heart of existence that spiritual movements like that of Rajneesh can never fully control, no matter how hard they try. REFERENCES Chapman and Maclain Way (dirs), Wild Wild Country Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste Carl Wilson, Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste Peter Sloterdijk, German cultural theorist Weird Studies, Episode 47, Machines of Loving Grace Slavoj Žižek, On Western appropriation of Eastern religions William Burroughs, American writer Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control” Bhagwan Rajneesh/Osho, Speech on friendship Daniel Ingram, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith James Carse, The Finite and Infinite Games Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Spectrevision Radio
0:03.3	Welcome to Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast with hosts Phil Ford and J.F. Martel.
0:20.8	For more episodes or to support the podcast,
0:23.3	go to weirdst and J.F. decided to I'm Meredith Michael, production assistant for weird studies.
1:02.2	Back in 2019, Phil and J.F. decided to record an episode about the Netflix docu-series, Wild Wild Country, which explores a community founded in Oregon in the early 1980s by a guru named Bhagwan Rajneesh.
1:14.0	Built out of news footage from the time, as well as retrospective narrations by many key figures, the series provides a fascinating and
1:19.2	multifaceted look into the establishment, prosperity, and ultimate downfall of this community
1:25.4	following several legal scandals. For various reasons,
1:30.6	your Weird Studies hosts had difficulty recording a conversation that was workable for the show,
1:36.6	and after two separate attempts, they archived the footage and moved on to other things.
1:42.8	I guess you could say that the topic was untimely.
1:46.4	But earlier this year, they gave the recording to me as a special editing project,
1:51.1	and its time has now come.
1:54.0	It's actually astonishing how well the themes of this conversation
1:57.3	follow up on the ideas from recent episodes,
2:00.7	despite it being recorded two years ago.
2:03.8	It touches on the idea of cultural appropriation, a perfect sequel to the episode on Exotica,
2:10.7	and refines the meaning of religion, expanding on a discussion begun in the episode on Art and Artifice.
2:17.9	Ultimately, J.F. and Phil arrive at the orientation that culture, art, and religion
2:23.4	should have toward the chaotic heart of existence and of human suffering.
2:29.0	An idea that I think can be summed up in these immortal words of Wesley from the movie the Prince's Bride.
2:36.0	Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
	...

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