So we live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with negativity, violence, and crime. Social media has been a catalyst in giving us this heart-wrenching feedback. Every morning when you scroll down your newsfeed and instead of being happy of your friends' post you get sad by seeing the pathetic condition of your surroundings - the society where you live, the world where you reside. The ongoing crisis in Syria, the largest humanitarian crisis of our time - the biggest exodus after world war 2. The rising xenophobia in Europe and America. The insidiously growing terrorism all over the world and the imminent threat of world war 3 which I am seeing lately these days. You know all of these things take me to a kind of contemplative state where I'm forced to think of the reasons for such chaos. Why are we having these? Why are we incensed with contradictions? Why are we flaming with contrasts? Why we have such conflicts that threaten our existence?
And if you take out the magnifying glass and peer through it. You'll find all these things trail back to one very thing. The fact that we have such a mass conflict that threatens our existence is because of the conflict we all are simmering within ourselves and that is mortality. The fact that we are mortal living being. The fact that we will die soon. The divine body which abodes our soul will soon be snatched away. This shudders us, give us goosebumps. It saddens us and this thought of our demise is so unbearable that it results in eccentric behavior. And that's the reason why we resort to violence. That's the reason why we have excessive desire to hold power. That's the reason why we want to be superior to others. Because these things give a temporary feeling of immortality. We temporarily bypass the transient reality. We skip that impermanence which is haunting us to death.
Ernest Becker takes this even further in his book "The Denial of Death" where he states 3 solutions human beings have found to the problem of death - "Religious, Love and Creative". Why do we fall in love? - to seek immortality. We turn our beloved to God or Goddess and take shelter in their amorous providence. We transcend ourselves to some utopia where we forget that we are made up of flesh and blood. We do anything we can do to deny our own creatureliness, but no matter what we do no external force can save us from this mortal coil. No matter how much beseech God, Oh God give us anything but death, but death is inevitable, death is imminent, death is a tragic climax of a romantic movie where we are the protagonist. So perhaps my friend the biggest tragedy of the humankind is not terrorism, is not tyranny and it won't be world war 3. The biggest tragedy of the humankind is that we are born with a death sentence.
And if you take out the magnifying glass and peer through it. You'll find all these things trail back to one very thing. The fact that we have such a mass conflict that threatens our existence is because of the conflict we all are simmering within ourselves and that is mortality. The fact that we are mortal living being. The fact that we will die soon. The divine body which abodes our soul will soon be snatched away. This shudders us, give us goosebumps. It saddens us and this thought of our demise is so unbearable that it results in eccentric behavior. And that's the reason why we resort to violence. That's the reason why we have excessive desire to hold power. That's the reason why we want to be superior to others. Because these things give a temporary feeling of immortality. We temporarily bypass the transient reality. We skip that impermanence which is haunting us to death.
Recommended Book "The Denial of Death"
read more Death anxiety of the Immortal Beings
Ernest Becker takes this even further in his book "The Denial of Death" where he states 3 solutions human beings have found to the problem of death - "Religious, Love and Creative". Why do we fall in love? - to seek immortality. We turn our beloved to God or Goddess and take shelter in their amorous providence. We transcend ourselves to some utopia where we forget that we are made up of flesh and blood. We do anything we can do to deny our own creatureliness, but no matter what we do no external force can save us from this mortal coil. No matter how much beseech God, Oh God give us anything but death, but death is inevitable, death is imminent, death is a tragic climax of a romantic movie where we are the protagonist. So perhaps my friend the biggest tragedy of the humankind is not terrorism, is not tyranny and it won't be world war 3. The biggest tragedy of the humankind is that we are born with a death sentence.
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