Very interesting read. Fatalism (boredom, embarrassment, formerly but also still honour + shame -- internet trolling and celebrity fawning for instance) in modern society as an imposed and accepted default that serves capitalism and our dismissal of anything religious/spiritual/not logical/other. Not a religious text although it does discuss Christian ideals albeit without necessitating an actual God figure in any of the arguments. Short and insightful!

Margaret Visser’s 2002 Massey Lecture, entitled “Beyond Fate” is an exploration of the notion of fate, chance, freedom, and choice. Travelling through history, exploring the origins of our need for order and reason in Ancient Greece and Rome, down through the Enlightenment and finally the present, Visser shows the changing nature of our desire to impose meaning and reasoning on otherwise meaningless events. Human beings need to find meaning, as the pondering and questioning beings we are, however, ideas of destiny and chance remove the need for our own actions and free us of responsibility. A fascinating series of lectures that also delved into our obsession with dichotomies and explored the etymology of language especially as it pertains to fatalism and how it is applied to everyday life.

https://cdnbookworm.blogspot.com/2019/08/beyond-fate.html