Rare video clip from 1972 on TED. The talk was entitled "Why Believe in Others."
Let’s just go for the big one, shall we? Why beat around the bush?
(Sidenote: I’ve begun to think of heroes as having a certain amount of “reverse thinking” power. At one point, when I heard about Rupert Murdoch taking over National Geographic, affecting funding for climate change research for scientists because he’s a cc denier, I posted this on Twitter:
My sense was: the bigger the dread, the greater the number of heroes it will take to knock out the negativity.)
Neurologist, psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl is the sort of hero that many of us turn to when looking to make sense of the world. His seminal work, Man’s Search for Meaning, seems to have only gained in sales momentum in recent years. My family and I were Airbnb’ing a freaking timeshare in freaking Kauai, and at the side of a pool, an older man in his late 60s was sipping a piña colada, halfway through the book. It was at that moment that I knew Frankl had lasting power.
Frankl’s gift is the ability to receive the darkest that the human soul can offer up and respond with inquiry and insight. His curiosity was a torch that stayed lit for the whole of his life. The video linked to above is a rare piece of footage from the 70s. If you are facing the terrible news of today, this is the video to watch. What Frankl says is a shared truth. It is as true now as ever:
If we take man as he should be, we make him capable of becoming of what he can be.
Viktor Frankl, it’s very hard to thank you for your contributions to our world. In trying to, I’m attempting to follow the path that you have opened up for us all. Thank you for staying curious, clear-eyed, and optimistic about human potential, knowing all that could go wrong. Thank you for making me believe too. Thank you for staying funny against the odds. I am better for having known you through your writing. Your work mattered.