Your Pitch
I handle publicity for author/philosopher Benedict Beckeld, Ph.D. Dr. Beckeld is in the final stage of completing the manuscript of his next work, The Hatred of Home: A Brief Analysis of Western Oikophobia. I believe your listeners would be interested in how oikophobia is relevant to current events nationally, and worldwide.
The Hatred of Home, according to Dr. Beckeld, "is primarily a work of political philosophy, but also contains material that concerns history, sociology, and ancient and modern literature. It explores the term oikophobia, that tendency, very common today, of disparagement of one's own culture. Examining this idea, especially widespread among intellectuals and the young, leads to a look at how Western civilizations and cultures develop, from rather naïve and self-promoting beginnings to a state of self-loathing and decline."
Recently, Dr. Beckeld was heard on the Nothing Off Limits podcast in which he discussed a variety of topics;
Meanwhile, Dr. Beckeld can also talk about his most recent book, Art & Aesthetics: a Promenade ab Homine (Lux Classic), featuring essays that examine, via a philosophical prism, modern art and artists, architecture, and aesthetic education. His other forthcoming work is Kalahari Singing, a memoir about his 2012 experience as a volunteer teacher in Otjombinde, Namibia, living in a small village with the Herero tribe in the Kalahari Desert. Here are possible talking points about these two titles:
Art & Aesthetics
- Why my collaborator and I decided to combine philosophy with music (using the old to create the new)
- The development of music since antiquity and why the peak of Western music has come and gone
- Why architecture is the only art form that will always be well and dynamic
- How young creative persons must learn to use past achievements without being slaves to them
- The lack of coherent artistic movements through social fragmentation
- The academic-scientific approach to literature and how science cannot understand the artistic in any meaningful way
- The meaning of "ab homine" (in the subtitle), as opposed to "ad hominem"
- The triumph of "interactive-analytical" over "authoritarian-memorative" education, while in fact we need a balance between the two
- The history of perspectivism and its unfortunate triumph over any objective truth
Kalahari Singing
- the framework and main story arc of my memoir Kalahari Singing (perhaps without spoilers about the end)
- the customs and current situation of the Herero tribe, with whom I lived
- the tragic history of that tribe, which included being a victim of what was arguably the 20th century's first genocide (at the hands of the Germans)
- the educational problems and severe levels of corporal punishment holding students back
- the nature of volunteering in the developing world
- the narcissism of Western volunteers
- how a sometimes exaggerated sense of political correctness renders a lot of useful aid impossible
- the misappropriation of small-scale financial donations to local schools
- the flora and especially amazing African fauna of the area
- the attitude of the locals to wild animals (often more hostile than that of conservationists)
Biography
A native of Sweden, Dr. Beckeld, 37, received his education in the United States and abroad. His Ph.D. is in Philosophy and Classics from the University of Heidelberg, Germany; he later taught those subjects while working as a professor at the American University of Paris. He has published books and articles on philosophical and socio-cultural issues, and has appeared on radio and television as an expert panelist. In addition to writing Dr. Beckeld, who resides in New York, is a noted expert in Ancient Greek and Roman culture, and European culture. Fluent in seven languages, he is a fitness enthusiast, and plays the violin.
