Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling

Well, just to give a super quick phrase of the book, it's something I began...

working on 25 years ago when I gave a lecture at Chicago on this theme and was picking at over the years, the book is really about the human desire not to know and what the psychology of that is and what the implications are for our beliefs about the soul and God and spirit, how we think about children and innocence, how we think about coping with the present and imagining a more perfect past.

working on 25 years ago when I gave a lecture at Chicago on this theme and was picking at over the years, the book is really about the human desire not to know and what the psychology of that is and what the implications are for our beliefs about the soul and God and spirit, how we think about children and innocence, how we think about coping with the present and imagining a more perfect past.

working on 25 years ago when I gave a lecture at Chicago on this theme and was picking at over the years, the book is really about the human desire not to know and what the psychology of that is and what the implications are for our beliefs about the soul and God and spirit, how we think about children and innocence, how we think about coping with the present and imagining a more perfect past.

But the core of the book, the beginning of it, is kind of not so much an argument as an unveiling of the complicated psychology or the psychological forces that we're beset by to know and not to know. And so Aristotle says everyone wants to know, which is true. But the will not to know is really not explored much in the philosophical tradition. But it shows up in literature. It shows up in myth.

But the core of the book, the beginning of it, is kind of not so much an argument as an unveiling of the complicated psychology or the psychological forces that we're beset by to know and not to know. And so Aristotle says everyone wants to know, which is true. But the will not to know is really not explored much in the philosophical tradition. But it shows up in literature. It shows up in myth.

But the core of the book, the beginning of it, is kind of not so much an argument as an unveiling of the complicated psychology or the psychological forces that we're beset by to know and not to know. And so Aristotle says everyone wants to know, which is true. But the will not to know is really not explored much in the philosophical tradition. But it shows up in literature. It shows up in myth.

So I begin with the myth of Oedipus, who wants to know and doesn't want to know what his relation is with his mother-wife. And then St. Augustine, we move to the present. So it's a kind of, I call it a ramble through some of these issues. On a theme that no one seems to pay attention to.

So I begin with the myth of Oedipus, who wants to know and doesn't want to know what his relation is with his mother-wife. And then St. Augustine, we move to the present. So it's a kind of, I call it a ramble through some of these issues. On a theme that no one seems to pay attention to.

So I begin with the myth of Oedipus, who wants to know and doesn't want to know what his relation is with his mother-wife. And then St. Augustine, we move to the present. So it's a kind of, I call it a ramble through some of these issues. On a theme that no one seems to pay attention to.

Yeah, well, part of it is we couldn't get through the day if we didn't. An example I...

Yeah, well, part of it is we couldn't get through the day if we didn't. An example I...

Yeah, well, part of it is we couldn't get through the day if we didn't. An example I...

use in the book is imagine if everyone had an led screen across the forehead that where you just had a tape of what they were thinking at every moment and if you engage with them they're thinking about you and you're reading about yourself and they're reading about your reaction to them works out on this podcast everybody's just hearing what i'm thinking at every moment but maybe as a society level that might not yeah right

use in the book is imagine if everyone had an led screen across the forehead that where you just had a tape of what they were thinking at every moment and if you engage with them they're thinking about you and you're reading about yourself and they're reading about your reaction to them works out on this podcast everybody's just hearing what i'm thinking at every moment but maybe as a society level that might not yeah right

use in the book is imagine if everyone had an led screen across the forehead that where you just had a tape of what they were thinking at every moment and if you engage with them they're thinking about you and you're reading about yourself and they're reading about your reaction to them works out on this podcast everybody's just hearing what i'm thinking at every moment but maybe as a society level that might not yeah right

But you couldn't even develop as a self that you could know if yourself is nothing but the result of all this information coming in. So there are all sorts of things we block. You know, we don't want our movies to be spoiled. We wrap presents up. Don't want to go to the doctor if you feel like you have a, for some people, yeah. For some people, do you want to know the sex of your kid?

But you couldn't even develop as a self that you could know if yourself is nothing but the result of all this information coming in. So there are all sorts of things we block. You know, we don't want our movies to be spoiled. We wrap presents up. Don't want to go to the doctor if you feel like you have a, for some people, yeah. For some people, do you want to know the sex of your kid?

But you couldn't even develop as a self that you could know if yourself is nothing but the result of all this information coming in. So there are all sorts of things we block. You know, we don't want our movies to be spoiled. We wrap presents up. Don't want to go to the doctor if you feel like you have a, for some people, yeah. For some people, do you want to know the sex of your kid?

So there are all sorts of ways in which we, certainly at my age, walking past a shop window is a very charged thing. I've got to suck my stomach in and hold my head in a certain way that it looks like I have more hair than I do. So we do it in life. But what happens is that at the much deeper level, we find it hard to cope with just the human condition. And we find it hard to cope with death.