Self Help Radio 092717: Guilt

(Original image here.)

Ah, guilt.  I have read online that it is to the soul what cancer (or pain) is to the body.  I have also read that it is a gift from Allah, warning you that what your doing is violating your soul.  Also, it's a tool of the Holy Spirit - you know, because shame is a tool of the Devil.  Guilt is conservative, too - it doesn't bring about change at all.  It's self-punishment, but also (or does it follow that) it makes us lose control of our happiness.  Anyway, if you fill your space with guilt, there won't be any room for love.  & this is just what I've read on images I saw while looking for a picture to put at the top of this page!

The best definition, which I should've used for the show but didn't, is from Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary: "Guilt, n. The condition of one who is known to have committed an indiscretion, as distinguished from the state of him who has covered his tracks."

With that in mind, I give you this week's Self Help Radio.  Full of guilt, & full of interviews, with a documentarian making a film about guilt, with chats with my spiritual mentor & my therapist, & with a historian who discusses historical guilt.  & music.  So much music.  I might almost feel a little guilt, there's so much music.

The show is now at the Self Help Radio website.  I can't guilt you into listening, but if you do, pay attention to username/password information, which is at the top of the page.  The show is in two parts; what is in each part, including the interviews, is listed below.

Listen to this show will actually remove guilt!  I hope.

(part one)

"A Little Guilt" Laptop _Opening Credits_
"Telepathic Guilt" Phoebe Blue & The Make Baleaves _Inquiries Acquired_
"The Guilt Club" Magoo _The Soateramic Sounds Of Magoo_

"Built For Guilt" Tania + Juan _Built For Guilt_
"Guilt" The Watanabes _You're Dancing I'm Absorbed_
"Guilt Trip" Andy Hendrickson _It's Ready_
"Guilt Trip" Romanovsky & Phillips _Trouble In Paradise_
"The Guilt Of My Secret" Marc Almond _Stranger Things_

interview with documentarian Allen Shariaty

"Southern Baptist Guilt" Manitoba Rock n Rolla _Self-Entitled_
"Catholic Guilt" Tom Tuerff _Something To Sell At My Gigs_
"White Guilt" Teen Vice _Saddest Summer_
"Guilt Free" Kim Salmon & The Surrealists _Ya Gotta Let Me Do My Thing_

interview with the Rev Dr Howard Gently

"Guilt Parade" The Birthday Party _Hee-Haw_

(part two)

"The Guilt & The Glory" Conflict _Increase The Pressure_
"White Guilt" John Wilkes Booze _Five Pillars Of Soul_
"The Guilt Must Weigh A Ton" Paper Airplane Pilots _The History Of Flying_

interview with my therapist Dr CJ Buchanan

"Sense Of Guilt" Josef K _Sorry For Laughing_
"Draygo's Guilt" The Fall _The Wonderful & Frightening World Of The Fall_
"Guilt" The Long Blondes _Couples_

interview with Harvard historian David Fruchter

"White Liberal Guilt" Milky Wimpshake _Lovers Not Fighters_
"Guilt" Those Poor Bastards _Behold The Abyss_
"Guilt" Fiction Family _Fiction Family Reunion_
"Guilt" Marianne Faithfull _Broken English_

"Guilt" Chapterhouse _Whirlpool_
"Guilt" California Wives _Affair_

Whither Guilt?

(Image from here.)

Let me tell you, there is no end to the websites online talking about guilt.  You are left with the impression that it's a common condition humans suffer from, a condition from which we are constantly seeking relief.

& of course I understand but the truth is, I probably wouldn't have done this particular show about guilt if I hadn't been listening to the new Manitoba Rock n Rolla record, Self Entitled.  There's a song on it called "Southern Baptist Guilt" that I liked which made me think, Why don't I do an entire show about guilt?

As I previously noted, a couple of days ago, I am not going to play songs which talk about being "guilty," to better focus on the state of guilt itself.  There were enough good songs to do this.  Now I have to plan a show about being guilty.  Look for it around 2021.  It does mean I can't play that new National song.  But oh well.

Tonight's Self Help Radio is on from 8-10pm central, 9-11pm eastern on 93.9 fm WLXU in Kentucky & online there & everywhere at Lexington Community Radio dot org.  You might feel a little guilt if you miss it, so why not just listen & immerse yourself in guilt?

Preface To Guilt: The Five Kinds Of Guilt

To get you ready for tomorrow's show, which is about guilt, I have been scouring the first ten results of a Google search to determine how many kinds of guilt there are.  Are there just two?  Or three?  Or four?  Or how about five?  I like five!  It's the number of fingers I have before I have to use my stupid left hand.  Let's rock this!

According to this paragraph on a web page - I mean it's not really an article, even though it does cite two sources - these are the five kinds of guilt:

One: "guilt for something that you did."  That's not very catchy, so we'll call it "Garden-Variety Common Ol' Guilt."  You fucked up, you lied, you hurt someone, you did something you have always considered wrong.  & now you feel guilty about.  Guilty enough to never do it again?  Ha ha ha no.

Two: "guilt for something you didn’t do, but want to."  Jeez, someone needs to name these better.  Can we call this "Pre-Regret Guilt"?  Or how about "Sour Grapes Guilt"?  Maybe just "Mindfuck Guilt"?  You thought about doing something you think of as wrong, but you didn't, because of fear or something, but you still feel guilty about it.  This is a particularly human form of guilt, & it makes you wish you were a sociopath or something so it didn't keep you up at night.

Three: "guilt for something you though you did."  Though you did?  Oh, thought you did.  We can call this "Dumbass Guilt."  Because you didn't do what you thought you did & eventually you're going to find out you didn't do it but for now, man, you're all thirteen kinds of upset about doing it.  In many cases of Dumbass Guilt (I should be paid for this), you probably already know you didn't do it, but you kinda needed some reason to feel guilty so you were like, What if?

Four: "guilt caused by thinking that you hadn't done enough."  This is probably best exemplified by "White Liberal Guilt," a term I didn't coin but a feeling most sensitive types feel when they realize dumb luck gave them advantages & resources that 99% of the world doesn't have.  Some people convince themselves they deserve what obvious chance had given them, but this isn't about delusion, it's about guilt.  By the way, this kind of guilt should be more pervasive.  It might mean people would actually help those less fortunate than themselves.  Instead, we get the alt-right.

Five: "guilt that you are doing better than someone else."  This is a kind of half-assed description of "Survivor's Guilt," which is not guilt you feel when you realize that you actually paid money to see the band Survivor.  A better description, from Wikipedia, is this: "a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumatic event when others did not."  Which is sort of like what this person is getting at, but not really.

Let's be clear: this week's show will examine guilt, not attempt to alleviate it or solve it or treat it.  That's because Self Help Radio is not a self-help radio show.  Think about how poorly the show is as a just plain radio show, & then imagine how bad it would be as something helpful!

You're welcome.

Stupid Rule Alert!

There is this problem I have:

When thinking about doing a radio show, I often imagine that I am giving the themes short-shrift.  I think to myself, "This theme is too broad, why, there are more than one radio shows here!"

This has happened with this week's show.  The theme is "guilt."  Naturally, a show about guilt ought to feature songs about people who are (or aren't) guilty, right?

Wrong!

That could be a whole other show!

Today I went through & eliminated all the "guilty" songs.  I wanted the show to focus on guilt.

& so it shall.

Because there's something really, really wrong with me.

When if ever will I do a "guilty" show?

Meet My Pets (Again?) # 7: Boone

Boone is the second animal we adopted while we were in Kentucky.  I told the story of finding him previously on the blog.

The "scabbed-over sore on his foot" turned out to be a bite & it was infected.  To treat it, the vet who neutered him gave him antibiotics; that didn't work.  Our regular vet actually removed the skin from around the bite & let the skin & hair grow back naturally.  It was freaky but it saved his life.

He's our youngest cat & he was so brave, coming out to meet two big humans walking three annoying dogs, but he's the shyest cat we have.  He's got a sweet quiet meow, he doesn't feel the need to gulp all his food at one time (so he begs for food all day long), & he loves to play & cuddle.  I think that night we brought him home I knew we'd keep him.  I was worried that he might have FIV or feline leukemia but so far his biggest issue is that he's allergic to flea bites, so we make him wear a flea collar.

Did I mention he was unbearably sweet?  Because he is.  Just too too sweet.