writing is sorrow; having had written is sublime
It isn’t always easy doing the things we have to do.
Unless it’s one of those happy occasions, as rare as they may be,
when the thing we have to do, is something we want to do.
But whether we want to or not, we do these things anyway.
Because we have to.
That’s just the way life is.
And the way life is…
Well, at least my fear of death is…
Well, at least according to the late great interdisciplinarian philosopher Ernest Becker.
Yes, according to Becker, it is this death anxiety of mine – and of yours too so you might want to pay attention – that really drives much of my life’s behavior.
I guess I should have titled this entry, “Death is my pilot,” or better yet, “I am Death’s co-pilot.”
It seems that this mostly unrealized, or at least unacknowledged fear of our eventual turn into worm food is fed mostly by our desire for immortality, which then feeds into our pursuit of it by other and any means possible: by our offspring, by our profession, by whatever means that allows us to achieve some sense of our being being realized long after the worms that fed upon us have passed.
But few of us are able to achieve even this, this immortality by other or any means possible because of our fear of life itself, by our not having the courage to engage it, life, to the magnitude required for us to transcend our mortality by other and any means possible.
From Becker’s monumental book The Denial of Death, one which I cannot recommend highly enough:
Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order to blindly and dumbly rot and disappear forever. It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and to have to live with. The lower animals are, of course, spared this painful contradiction, as they lack a symbolic identity and the self-consciousness that goes with it. They merely act and move reflexively as they are driven by their instincts. If they pause at all, it is only a physical pause; inside they are anonymous, and even their faces have no name. They live in a world without time, pulsating, as it were, in a state of dumb being. This is what has made it so simple to shoot down whole herds of buffalo or elephants. The animals don’t know that death is happening and continue grazing placidly while others drop alongside them. The knowledge of death is reflective and conceptual, and animals are spared it. They live and they disappear with the same thoughtlessness: a few minutes of fear, a few seconds of anguish, and it is over. But to live a whole lifetime with the fate of death haunting one’s dreams and even the most sun-filled days—that’s something else.
Yeah…
Actually, this whole death anxiety thing is something of a theme of my soon to be finished work in progress.
But that is not what prompted this entry today.
What prompted it was the PsyPost article New psychology research indicates hatred toward collective entities inspires meaning in life.
Heck of a lede, no? I hardly have to quote from the article because the author seems to have crammed the gist of it into the title.
But reading the article, we find that its title is actually as much a mouthful as is the title of the study upon which the article is based: Hate and meaning in life: How collective, but not personal, hate quells threat and spurs meaning in life.
Now, I haven’t actually read the study – I don’t feel like shelling out the $35.00 it would take to do so.
But I kind of want to because I would like to know if Becker is referenced in the study seeing that he was telling us pretty much the same thing way back in the Swingin’ Seventies.
However, according to Becker, this hate (as manifested by racism, sexism, homophobia… you get the picture) that brings us together in collective and harmonious accord is driven by, you guessed it, our collective fear of death.
It was this theory – that our fear of death feeds our hate – that led a mixed group of researchers and huge Becker disciples to put it to the test/studies to see if it could be proved.
Which it could, at least according to them, and which led them to develop the Terror Management Theory (I wish I could come up with such a cool-sounding theory) and which they discuss in detail in their fantastic book The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life.
In one early [Terror Management Theory] study assessing the [Mortality Salience] hypothesis, Greenberg et al. (1990)[4] had Christian participants evaluate other Christian and Jewish students that were similar demographically, but differed in their religious affiliation. After being reminded of their death (experimental MS induction), Christian participants evaluated fellow Christians more positively, and Jewish participants more negatively, relative to the control condition.[26] Conversely, bolstering self-esteem in these scenarios leads to less worldview defense and derogation of dissimilar others.
– Wikipedia
Must be legit because even the National Institutes of Health published a death anxiety study called Terror Management Theory and the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Well, they also published a study called Why Most Published Research Findings Are False, so… there’s that.
Anyway, long story short…
We all should be doing those memento mori meditations like the Stoics and other ancient smarties told us we should be doing long ago and then, hey, we would have absolutely nothing to fear…
Don’t look down on death, but welcome it. It too is one of the things required by nature. Like youth and old age. Like growth and maturity. Like a new set of teeth, a beard, the first gray hair. Like sex and pregnancy and childbirth. Like all the other physical changes at each stage of life, our dissolution is no different.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Except, maybe, fear itself.
Sorry to say but chances are you’re a racist…
One more than likely slave to a supremist ego and motivated by fear and seduced by a willful (and more than likely generational) ignorance.
However, if you condemn and attack Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project without any understanding of either and truly believe you’re not a racist, then please at least make an effort to explain to us (in your own words, not Fox News’) how that is possible.
Good luck with that.
In exploring the reasons why there is so much pushback and misinformation being disseminated regarding critical race theory (CRT) … let’s examine the psychology of humans. There is a theory called “psychological reactance,” which was first proposed by Jack W. Brehm in 1966. Brehm theorized that people are inherently resistant to certain persuasion, specifically when they feel that the persuasion is somehow posing a threat to their freedoms or their existence. People who are threatened usually feel uncomfortable, hostile, aggressive and angry.
Psychological reactance makes people disregard even the most glaring reality in order to protect their perception of themselves — their ego. They view an acceptance of this reality as a threat to their entire existence and do everything in their power to stifle that “perceived threat.”
Justin J. Grooms, The San Diego Union-Tribune, June 15, 2021
*and #BLM and the Take a Knee Movement and on and on and on…
According to this article, which is a derivative of this article, which leans heavily on this study, creative people literally see the world differently than us lesser than creative types, as is illustrated by the following video…
Some of you may remember this similar titillating* exercise in awareness I shared in days past.
#prayforopenness
#andpuertorico
*The word “titillating” was added for clickbait purposes only; although, some may in fact be titillated by brain teasers. Who knows…
More weird, rambling, forgotten writing recently found while rooting ’round the cluttered Draft files folder. I don’t remember writing it, ergo, I have no idea why it was written. However, as it appears to be a philosophical dilemma regarding torture, and, as torture has been one of the Freak Show promotional devices, I guess that kind of makes it relevant to today. Right?
Or
You and your anointed line, the ancient Realm of the Benevolent, a most modest and compassionate line of monarchs if ever there was one, has ruled royal over all of the Earth’s bountiful domain from time immemorial. And while your realm has always been one full of Peace and Plenty, a new dark day has dawned upon it, for the Sorcerer of the Vile has finally united the Universal Forces of Evil against you and your humble people.
Spells by the Sorcerer have been cast, enchanting many of your brave and trusted nobles and subjugating them and all whom they lord over under the Forces of Evil. With so many of your own nobles now aligned against you, your realm’s existence is being threatened like it has never been threatened before. Your blood could be the last of your majestic line’s to flow.
One of your most valiant and strong amongst all your nobles, whose enchantment is yet unbeknownst to you, managed to storm the Chamber of the Grand Council of Goode while in session and kidnap your most trusted advisor and lifelong friend and one whom to all is known simply as Hope.
Hope has always been there for you for as long as you have ruled. Without her by your side, you feel lost, helpless. Defeated.
For days you hear nothing of Hope’s fate until finally a most horrid of dark riders on a most horrid of dark horses brings word straight from the Sorcerer of the Dark himself that he is willing to allow Hope to live, but only if you, like so many of your enchanted nobles have, swear a subjugating oath of fealty to him of the Vile.
And you have only until the Hour of Eight to do so.
Luckily, amidst your despair at the loss of Hope, word arrives from a messenger of the yet clear-headed and un-enchanted Lord Squarejaw that he and his loyal guard have captured a close confident of the Vile Sorcerer and one whom Squarejaw is certain knows where Hope can be found. But time is short and as of yet no answers are forthcoming from the Vile allegiant and Squarejaw fears and that there is only one way to get answers from his captive before the reckoning Hour of Eight strikes. And that way is through… torture.
For Hope’s sake, what do you, you in all your benevolence and grace, do?
~ Bring your ancient and noble line to an end by subjugating yourself and your realm to the Sorcerer of the Vile and his Forces of Evil, thereby letting Hope live?
~ Continue to resist the Sorcerer of the Vile and his Forces of Evil, thereby letting Hope die?
~ Sacrifice the ideals and principles of your ancient bloodline and Realm by ordering Lord Squarejaw to torture the Vile allegiant in the hope that the captive will provide the information that will enable you to save Hope before the Hour of Reckoning?
I’ve tried to read Niccolò Machiavelli’s THE PRINCE several times throughout my reading existence but thus far I haven’t been able to finish it.
But I did watch that risqué/raunchy TV show about that bad, Bad Pope called “Borgia” (not “The Borgias” mind you; still haven’t seen that one yet), so I have a pretty good TV idea about the dude on whom Machiavelli based his “prince.”
Anyway, for some reason I’ve been thinking about Machiavellianism lately.
Not sure why, but according to that informational cyberwonderland called Wikipedia, it appears I’m pretty much a “Low Mach” kind of guy. However, just the fact that I am a guy, a typical one at that, pretty much guarantees that I’m a of a higher Mach than the typical kind of gal.
Here are some interesting quotes regarding Machiavelianism:
Machiavellianism is “the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct”.
Machiavellianism is also a term that some social, forensic and personality psychologists use to describe a person’s tendency to be unemotional, and therefore able to detach him or herself from conventional morality and hence to deceive and manipulate others.
Machiavellianism is one of the three personality traits referred to as the dark triad, along with narcissism and psychopathy.
People scoring high on the scale (high Machs) tend to endorse statements such as, “Never tell anyone the real reason you did something unless it is useful to do so…”
Hmm… it seems that I know someone who might possess one or all of those of the “dark triad.”
Yes, I’m sure I do know someone who is Machiavellian, narcissistic, and psychopathic.
The name’s not coming it me right now but I’m pretty sure I know someone Just. Like. That.
Anyway…
Sometimes it seems that life would be much easier if I were to be more Machiavellian; if I were to only worry about myself and my needs; to see others only as either obstacles or opportunities to satisfy my needs.
Yeah…
Hey! If you’re interested in knowing whether you’re a High or Low Mach kind of human, you can take the test here.
Post your score in the comments for us…
If you feel it would be to your benefit to do so, that is.
The poem of me from yesterday Is not that which I am today In many ways they may resemble But don't be fooled by what I say Look closely at what you hear Listen with more than just an ear The poem of me from yesterday Is not that which I am today You think that you may know me By the words I rhyme and sing You think that you may know me But of me you know not a thing The poem of me I once sang for you Then may have had lyrics true But with each new day the words decay And of that me from then -- I bade adieu
❅ ❅ ❅ ❅
These moving images were selected from the results of a search I did on the term “PTSD” through foter. Attributes and rights can be found in lower right corner of each image.
Peace be to the sufferers and those who care for them.
People’s moods can be just like yo-yos
Sometimes up…
Sometimes down…
One minute they’re smilin’
And the next they’re wearin’ a frown!
from Poem Man
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