Ordinary Unhappiness UNLOCKED: 32: Thanksgiving Special, Part 2: Murder, Myth, and Memory
Nov 25, 2025
This Thanksgiving special dives deep into the myths surrounding gratitude rituals and the darker histories at play. The hosts examine how social performances of thankfulness mask realities of settler colonialism and historical violence. Freud’s theories are explored, revealing how primal acts can shape modern rituals. The discussion unfolds on the constructed nature of Thanksgiving as a national holiday and critiques the narratives that obscure indigenous perspectives. Listeners are invited to reflect on the complexities of memory, myth-making, and the ongoing impacts of colonialism.
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Thanksgiving As Enforced Gratitude
- Thanksgiving rituals enforce a narrow, ideological gratitude by dictating acceptable objects of thanks and what must be forgotten.
- The ritual secures social roles and hierarchies while masking conflicts and precarity.
Freud’s Totem Reveals Modern Repression
- Freud's Totem and Taboo reframes exotic totems and taboos to reveal repressed structures in modern society.
- The totemic ritual both sanctifies and reenacts a primal crime, exposing how rituals mystify guilt.
Primal Horde Story As Ritual Origin
- Freud's parable: brothers killed and devoured their father, then ritually commemorated the crime.
- The sacrificial meal memorializes murder while transferring the father's strength to participants.
