Latest / Why We Do What We Do / Mini: R.I.P.

Transcript

Mini: R.I.P. · Why We Do What We Do

• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Why We Do what we do Mini. I'm
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: your host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are
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  Speaker 1: a psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and non human animals do. We try and highlight the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: weird things and the fun things, and the quirky things,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: and even the popular things, and we just really try
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and bring a skeptical, scientific length to them. But in October,
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  Speaker 1: we put all of that on pause, not completely, but
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: like a little bit, and instead we started just taking
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: on some spooky topics because it's the month in which
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Halloween takes place, and it's just a fun celebration of
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  Speaker 1: all things macabre.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, it's our favorite time of year. We
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: get to welcome in the fall season with Apple's doughnuts
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  Speaker 2: and pumpkin spice and scary movies and pumpkins with faces
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  Speaker 2: on them. It's a good time.
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  Speaker 1: It's our favorite, yeah, And it's just things that we
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  Speaker 1: find fun, and so we shift our gaze to those
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: type of topics. But this is a mini But minis
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: are not immune from the fact that they release in October.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: These come out every Monday, and Mondays happen in October,
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  Speaker 1: and so we will take the opportunity to also dedicate
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  Speaker 1: our short dive episodes into a spooky related topic. Last
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: year was the first year we were doing minis during
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the October month, and we did all of our minis
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: about some kind of diagnosis as it related to phobias,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: which I thought was a clever idea, and it turns
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: out like there's so much overlap in those that it
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: started to become a little less unique pretty much immediately.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty much like the process and cause
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: were the same. It just was that, oh, yeah, this
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  Speaker 2: person's very afraid of this thing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was basically it. So I don't know that
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: we'll revisit that exact format again in the future, but
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: we're not going to do that this year. Instead, we're
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  Speaker 1: taking on some other things that we find spooky related
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  Speaker 1: to Halloween, and that can be done in fifteen minutes
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: or less. And that's a huge amount of preamble for
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: what we're talking about today, because this might be the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: shortest mini we ever record.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, today we are talking about rip.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, let it rip. Before we dive into our topic,
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  Speaker 1: I'll do a little bit more pre stuff here, which
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: is that if you would like to support us, you
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: can leave us a rating and review, like or subscribe,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Like and subscribe and tell a friend. You can also
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: join us on Patreon and I'll elaborate on those a
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: little bit at the end of this discussion. If you're
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: joining us for the first time, welcome, We hope what
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: you hear today. And if you're a returning person, then
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: welcome back. Thank you for continuing to seek us out
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and listen to what we have to say about things.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: We really appreciate all of our listeners no matter what.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: But I think that's the stuff before we get started.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's going to cover it for now.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's go ahead and dive in. Then,
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  Speaker 1: We as a species have a history of wishing our
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  Speaker 1: departed loved ones and friends a RESTful afterlife with the
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  Speaker 1: helpful direction our IP, which of course stands for requia
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  Speaker 1: scat in pace.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, that's how I know it.
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  Speaker 1: Or you might be more familiar with Yeah, that's how
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  Speaker 1: you're probably familiar. You might be more familiar with rest
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  Speaker 1: in peace. But I thought it'd be fun, since we
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  Speaker 1: see our IP in so many different spaces, to dig
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: in a little bit to the history of this. Turns
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  Speaker 1: out it's short and so perfect for a mini.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it. So the acronym RIP adorns many
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  Speaker 2: a tombstone to leave the buried with the final edict
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  Speaker 2: well wishing or prayer rest in peace. However, the practice
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  Speaker 2: of funerary scripts are about as old as writing itself,
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  Speaker 2: So we're going all the way back at this point.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, people have been as long as they've been writing,
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  Speaker 1: they've been writing in some capacity about the departed people
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  Speaker 1: in their lives. And that makes a lot of sense.
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  Speaker 1: Like we are a social species. Writing relates to language,
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  Speaker 1: page men. Language helps us have connection with one another.
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  Speaker 1: The actual Latin translation traces back as far as sixteen
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  Speaker 1: thirty one. The requiest scat in Pacy is how I
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  Speaker 1: saw the pronunciation guide on that It was translated into
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  Speaker 1: English in sixteen eighty one, so about fifty years later. However,
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  Speaker 1: despite a strong connection to Catholicism, RIP was actually not
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  Speaker 1: adopted ubiquitously on like tombstones and whatnot until the seventeen hundreds.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, so, some have pointed to Biblical references as origins
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  Speaker 2: for this idea. Isaiah fifty seven to two says, quote
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  Speaker 2: he enters into peace, they rest in their beds, each
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  Speaker 2: one who walked in his upright way end quote. In addition,
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  Speaker 2: the concept of rest has profound significance in scripture as
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  Speaker 2: as a reminder that human experience on earth is temporary
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  Speaker 2: and continues after death. It alludes to God calling people
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  Speaker 2: to rest with him after a lifetime of toil and.
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  Speaker 1: Having to listen to ads. Oh all right, we're back.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: We're talking about the history of our ip. This has
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  Speaker 1: its origins in some Christian biblical traditions and stands for
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  Speaker 1: rest in peace, and was started being more commonly used
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  Speaker 1: in grain and tombstones in the seventeen hundreds. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: phrase itself, it contains it has some like implicit information
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  Speaker 1: and explicit information, and so we'll just unpack that really
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  Speaker 1: quick first, is it. It contains an acknowledgment of passing
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  Speaker 1: of somebody and that's the sort of rest part for
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  Speaker 1: the rest and peace. And it also includes a well
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  Speaker 1: wishing or a directive for afterlife to experience this without
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  Speaker 1: worry or strife, and that's obviously the piece part of
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  Speaker 1: the peacee. There is a lyric of a song that
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  Speaker 1: by he his legend called or not the songs I
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  Speaker 1: called this, but he just says rest in pieces, which
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  Speaker 1: I thought was kind of fun, a fun way of
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  Speaker 1: funny way I've played with it anyway, So that's part
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  Speaker 1: of this rest and peace. It's acknowledgement of passing. It's
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  Speaker 1: a well wishing for a afterlife without warring strife. And
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  Speaker 1: there's like an implicit element of this that's recognition and
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  Speaker 1: respect for the person and the celebration of their life
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  Speaker 1: and kind of like a tacit condolence or wish of
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  Speaker 1: condolences to the loved ones left behind by that person's passing.
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  Speaker 1: So anytime we invoke this, there's kind of all of
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  Speaker 1: these language social functions coming to play that are kind
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  Speaker 1: of interesting.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And speaking of like social functions, RIP has been
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  Speaker 2: secularized and use in a variety of ways in contemporary
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  Speaker 2: pop culture. So it's actually pretty common to hear rest
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  Speaker 2: and peace or RIP kind of at least in the
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  Speaker 2: United States, as a common thing that you might say,
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  Speaker 2: whether you're religious or not.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And so the ways that this is engaged or
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  Speaker 1: are going to have different language functions for people. So
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  Speaker 1: saying RIP is actually alone little bit more withdrawn and
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  Speaker 1: disengaged than necessarily saying rest and peace, but even anymore
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  Speaker 1: RIP or rest in peace it almost seems to lack
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  Speaker 1: imply a lack of closeness with a person who is deceased,
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  Speaker 1: at least like really soon after they're passing, possibly due
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  Speaker 1: to this sort of the generic lack of personalization, because
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  Speaker 1: that's just sort of a generic thing to say. It's
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  Speaker 1: also just as likely that it feels impersonal because of
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  Speaker 1: the fact it's so commonly associated with death. Just in general,
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  Speaker 1: it feels impersonal, and it's like sort of been appropriated
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  Speaker 1: into Halloween type things. So there's sort of an almost,
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  Speaker 1: i guess, watered down use of this phrasing as it exists,
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  Speaker 1: because you imagine that like if their parent just passed,
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  Speaker 1: they're not like, rip dad. You know, no one's saying that,
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  Speaker 1: Like that feels too impersonal. They're unlikely to even say
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  Speaker 1: rest and peace. They might like I would say that,
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  Speaker 1: but I feel like the function of rip almost communicates
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  Speaker 1: a distance between you and the dis east unless it
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  Speaker 1: was after like a long period of time, Like perhaps
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  Speaker 1: that's someone who's been gone for a long time, and
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  Speaker 1: you might say rip, and it now sounds like it's
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  Speaker 1: more out of respect because it's an acknowledgment after they've
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  Speaker 1: been gone for quite a while. So you're not in
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  Speaker 1: sort of a raw emotional state. Yeah, but then it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily have that same function.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that makes sense. Now, the hashtag, which is hashtag
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  Speaker 2: rip is used in social media to note the passing
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  Speaker 2: of someone, although again suggest lack of personal closeness or
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  Speaker 2: rip even indicates a lot of homework, or even rip
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  Speaker 2: me has been used to celebrate how good someone looks,
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  Speaker 2: or you know, just kind of like there's lots of
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  Speaker 2: different things that you could use it for. And you'll
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  Speaker 2: see that that function kind of changes, especially in the
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  Speaker 2: social media space.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, it's been its meaning you're starting to shift
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  Speaker 1: more abruptly and more quickly. And of course it's been
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  Speaker 1: as I mentioned, rip has been appropriated into Halloween with
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  Speaker 1: these sort of foam tombstones or other decorations that sport
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  Speaker 1: the iconic initialism of orip might be written on a
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  Speaker 1: coffin or something of that nature, where these are all
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  Speaker 1: just Halloween decorations that now contain this. Yeah, and don't
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  Speaker 1: necessarily again it's it's depersonalized. It's sort of just repackaged
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  Speaker 1: for a the whimsical, macabre celebration that is all things Halloween.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, it's almost like a rote thing at this point.
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  Speaker 2: Like it's not like it's like losing, it's like it's
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  Speaker 2: distance from its meaning is like making it just kind
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  Speaker 2: of a thing. Right, So, even further, RIP has been
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  Speaker 2: abstracted in the use to represent simply the end of
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  Speaker 2: something and metaphorical deaths, such as the canceling of a
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  Speaker 2: TV show, the retirement of a band or other musical artists,
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  Speaker 2: or the agonizing collapse of our country under dictatorial rule
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  Speaker 2: of fe're Donald Trump? So rip us it's been real.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, RIP constitution, RIP protection for human beings. Yeah, just
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  Speaker 1: in neoliberal hell moving forward.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's terrible.
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  Speaker 1: All right, that's what we have to say about RIP. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's where it comes from, why it exists, how it's
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  Speaker 1: currently used, It's various linguistic functions. This was pretty quick,
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  Speaker 1: so great. Anything else you have to say about that
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  Speaker 1: before we wrap this one up?
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  Speaker 2: Nothing on my end, I think that covers it.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, I'll do a quick things to say
• 10:18
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• 10:20
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• 10:22
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• 10:51
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• 10:52
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• 10:54
  Speaker 1: for listening. Maybe asked, but is there anything to add
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: for you or we ready to say goodbyes?
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Nope, nothing for me. That's it.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Lrip to this episode. This is Abraham, this is Shane.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Why we Do what we Do? Mini is out Boy.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do what We Do.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: going to WWDWWD podcast dot com.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and we hope you have an awesome day.