Death – a small thought.

For a great many of us in the industrialised countries, especially the relatively affluent and comfortable middle class, death and our mortality are something we have pushed to the margins of our lives. We are not used to the idea that death could come and get us.

For many of us death is something we think we risk only if we bring it upon ourselves. Death has to be invited by doing something stupid, like driving drunk. Otherwise it is something we only come face to face with in the last few months of our own life and the lives of those we are close to.

Illness has, for most of us, for most of our lives, been separated from death. Illness is an inconvenience to be ‘treated’ rather than a frightening herald of death itself.  We have grown flippant about death. We like to laugh at it.  Death in ‘The Seventh Seal’ was solemn and commanding. Bill and Ted reduced death to a clown.

In place of death we talk now of immunity thinking  that we all can and should be.

But all this is very recent.

In the not so distant past our culture had a place for death. Death appeared in plays and stories.  Death walked onto the stage. It spoke and we listened and thought. Death had a presence in our culture that allowed us to think about mortality and the value of life.

Death was even there in nursery rimes, because children had to mourn dying parents and parents mourn dying children.  “Atishoo, atishoo we all fall down” came from the plague. It reminded us that death is a reality we do not yet have dominion over.

But we have forgotten.  Forgotten that death can come and get us. Forgotten how to talk about it.

Maybe it is time for us to start to talk again about death. Maybe we would do ourselves some good to consider and talk about our own mortality and remind ourselves that we do not and cannot control everything all the time. That a certain humility is not a sign of weakness, surrender, or primitive fatalism but is a recognition that life cannot be hoarded and death not commanded.

When my kids were little we used to play a silly game. I taught them what Carpe diem (seize the day) meant. I would call out “‘Carpe diem’ boys” and they would reply, “because ‘tempus fugit’ dad!” (Time flies).  We still do it when we see each other.  It was silly then but less so now.

Now they are home from university slightly worried about their elder brother who has not made it home and about me and their mum and our elderly neighbour, Min.  The very small worries of the affluent and safe.

On the news and in the papers we talk about the world changing but in reality it is only the world for a very few of us that is changing. For most of humanity, death never went away. The value of human life is not different in different countries, only its fragility. Perhaps  remembering how fragile life can be will be a humbling lesson amongst all the grief.

22 thoughts on “Death – a small thought.”

  1. Would like to add to the last sentence: ‘… and then we will value every moment of life that much more!’

  2. The line was originally “ashes, ashes, we all fall down”. “Ashes” of the burned bodies and the coming reality that more of us would succumb to that plague. Now we see death as a plague rather than part of life. And what does this do to our view of life? “Visions of sugar-plums” comes to mind. Or Disney fantasies, or space travel fantasies.

  3. I’m finding these videos by Professor Donald Hoffman interesting. Professor Hoffman believes that space and time are created by our minds. The mind creates all physical matter, including our brains. No one can figure out how the brain creates an image: how does the physical matter in our brain generate an image that we can see? A recent article I read said that the brain was nothing like a computer.

    The universe seems to have consciousness built into it, and Donald Hoffman believes that is where our consciousness is coming from. He also believes that some sort of consciousness survives death. His theories use a lot of maths, which I find interesting. Evolution can be proven mathematical, and Dr Hoffman’s theories stand up in the maths too. It’s all purely academic, I agree.

    The Case Against Reality

    https://youtu.be/dd6CQCbk2ro

    This later one is even weirder.

    Is there an Infinite Mind? | Donald Hoffman Ph.D. | Waking Cosmos

    https://youtu.be/Az18Onc0e58

    1. Kavy,
      thank you for the links. I shall watch with interest. There is growing dissatisfaction with the narrower reductionism that insists the brain is a computer, and consciousness does not really exist. An intellectual rebellion I find invigorating.

      1. Hi Dave – it’s been a while.

        Finding having more time at home than usual, been able to get a few things done that had been left on the back burner. See here
        https://blocl.uk/books
        Are you okay with: ‘Radicals’ digest, exquisitely named so by the author of The Debt Generation?

        Keep safe, Joe

    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKxeyOveas4

      return of de faeries – kelfin oberon – avalon

      https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/2018/12/

      Hi Kavi, I recoomend this Last Druid Film and looking into the Pelagian Controversy which ties back in turn the WHat Kelfin lyrically brings out in Return of de faeries which is not a point on identity or gender politics.
      megalommatis’s work is interesting but I have only started studying it, Suffi Mystisim, Jewish Mystisism and Metaphysics were known to Kant,
      https://notthegrubstreetjournal.com/2019/01/30/anawakening-links-from-the-memoryhole-a-journey-pt-2/
      PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, 1781
      Human reason, in one sphere of its cognition, is called upon to consider questions, which it cannot decline, as they are presented by its own nature, but which it cannot answer, as they transcend every faculty of the mind.

      It falls into this difficulty without any fault of its own. It begins with principles, which cannot be dispensed with in the field of experience, and the truth and sufficiency of which are, at the same time, insured by experience. With these principles it rises, in obedience to the laws of its own nature, to ever higher and more remote conditions. But it quickly discovers that, in this way, its labours must remain ever incomplete, because new questions never cease to present themselves; and thus it finds itself compelled to have recourse to principles which transcend the region of experience, while they are regarded by common sense without distrust. It thus falls into confusion and contradictions, from which it conjectures the presence of latent errors, which, however, it is unable to discover, because the principles it employs, transcending the limits of experience, cannot be tested by that criterion. The arena of these endless contests is called Metaphysic.

      Time was, when she was the queen of all the sciences; and, if we take the will for the deed, she certainly deserves, so far as regards the high importance of her object-matter, this title of honour. Now, it is the fashion of the time to heap contempt and scorn upon her; and the matron mourns, forlorn and forsaken, like Hecuba:

      Modo maxima rerum,
      Tot generis, natisque potens…
      Nunc trahor exul, inops.

      Ovid, Metamorphoses.
      [xiii, “But late on the pinnacle of fame,
      strong in my many sons.
      now exiled, penniless.”]

      1. The Last Druid – Documentary on Ben McBrady of The Old Gaelic Order
        Documentary describing the life of the late Irish druid, Ben McBrady.
        Ben McBrady, known as Brady of the Name and Herenach of the Two Kilmores, was Aircinneac and Herenach of a pre-Druid Megalithic Order called “The Old Gaelic Order,” often referred to simply as “The Order.” Ben McBrady is believed to have been the last member of “The Old Gaelic Order.” Because of this he was called “The Last Druid.” He passed away in January of 1996. Ben McBrady was a descendant of Lugar MacLugair (Lughaid mac Loeguire), who was Chief Druid of Ireland and Druid to the High King Leary and the Kings of Leinster. Lugar MacLugair was also believed to have been a member of “The Old Gaelic Order.”
        https://www.bitchute.com/video/sCnrS01wNres/

    3. Kavy

      Followed him & his work a while ago – fascinating stuff & it appears to make sense to me that early man only needed limited desktop icons in order to survive, which is backed up by Penrose in his assertion that physicists, mathematicians etc would not have lasted very long without forms of civilisation.

  4. Life is about reproduction, not about living forever. A sexually transmitted disease, and the mortality rate is 100%.

  5. My mom would never have understood Marshall law even after the knock? She instead answered the graceful knock of the White dove of paradise.
    We need a hero?

  6. wing-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater-web-3-its-really-a-p2p-end-to-end-encryption-thang/
    I know that this site has had a lot of DDOS problems and hopefully the distributed cloud based hosting is helping. CLoud servers are still compromised or vulnerable where as full web 3 p2p is not.
    The recent corbett report touches on the end to end encryption attacks coming from the unravelling of net nuetrality and cyber totalitarianisn cyber paranoids.
    If anyonme wants any help with getting set up heres my contact details.
    https://notthegrubstreetjournal.com/contact/
    Web 3, #IPFS Intermediaries in a Disintermediated world. Coals to Newcastle. #GCMaf #EffectiveCancerTreatment #BigPharma #DavidNoakes #Web3 #AntiCensorship
    https://notthegrubstreetjournal.com/2019/05/11/web-3-ipfs-intermediaries-in-a-disintermediated-world-coals-to-newcastle-gcmaf-effectivecancertreatment-bigpharma-davidnoakes-web3-anticensorship/
    Wheres the Beef, Meat and Two veg or boiled beef and carrots. Tyranny of the Vegans. Brick in the wall. Hole in the wall.A WARNING FROM TOMORROW . Solarium from Ike to Trump. #CovidPurpose #FollowtheDebt #DebtServitude #Goodwillhunting #Wheresthebeef #KarlRove
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  7. I don’t remember how old I was or anything else about that time long ago when I was hit by the shock of realising that I would die one day. A bigger shock to the system than that other revelation that in order for me to be alive my parents must have sex, which I suppose that when most of us were living in one roomed shacks would have been fairly obvious, along with other necessary bodily functions.

    The subject is easy enough to shrug off when you are young, which is just as well as it would likely lead to a lack of adventure, but as you get older & that horizon draws closer it becomes a bit of a shadow that follows wherever you go. I very nearly died something that left me with a deep fear that lasted a couple of years or so. This was not about dying as such, but the way of it & the timing to a lesser extent.

    I have been kicked around the floor a few times, but that 20 minutes or so of my heart off & on impersonating a machine gun, while the rest of my body performed a version of some manic dance, with the feeling of been stomped on by an elephant & my jaw being tightened in a vice, was an event that massively paled any previous painful experiences. There was also the added extreme discomfort of not being able to breathe accompanied by a desperate thirst.

    I also recall the old movies I watched as a kid, that always seemed to feature the death of someone in a domestic situation as lying in a comfortable bed, showing some discomfort as family members & doctors stood watching, which is how I believed it happened & didn’t seem so bad. Like wise heart attacks in movies are usually some fella suddenly clutching at his chest & perhaps wandering around a bit like Don Corleone before conking out & perhaps that is actually how it is for most people & if it were to happen again, that is how i hope it would occur for me.

    CPR in movies & public info films is according to what the paramedics told me & what my partner saw, is nothing like the reality of it – even Vinnie Jone’s demo was it appears wimpish. 5 Cpr’s saved my life but the cost was around 6 months of pains in my chest from severely strained intercostal ribs that were much the same as the initial attack. This led to me ending up twice as a fraud sitting in A&E for hours on end, but I did get a good idea of how brilliant the A&E teams were & how they basically have to go flat out to cope with a not particularly busy weekday night.

    Something very strange happened during the 5th CPR when the PM’s were thinking that they had lost me because I had a near death experience. It was very short & I suppose cliched as it matches the experience recounted by many others, as in being in a serene place way from all the pain & chaos, while in front of me 4 or 5 blurry & vaguely human shaped forms were becoming clearer. This was then interrupted by the PM’s face suddenly appearing as if through a membrane, with my reaction to this being a feeling of huge disappointment.

    I didn’t think about it much for quite a while & just dismissed it as lack of oxygen to the brain & perhaps a dream or illusion, until I chanced on a German scientific study which it seems shows that it is a fairly common thing which for the most part induce the same sort of feeling. For a minority it is very scary all that peace & calm, but they are perhaps bankers & the like so screw them.

    Anyhow as to death I have adopted the POV of the Woody Allen character’s Dad in the film ” Hannah & her Sisters ” who replied to his son when questioned on the subject ” I will be unconscious, if not I will deal with it then “. The experience did have the effect of further strengthening my feelings to what really matters in life ( to me anyway ) but the honeymoon period of still being alive didn’t last that long as the grind of this life re-commenced. I don’t know about the NDE, but it is intriguing & I would like to visit there again, but i can wait.

  8. A nuclear scientist once said in answering a question from a journalist asking if uranium was the most unstable thing in the universe the nuclear scientist reply… “No, the most unstable thing in the universe is consciousness”.

  9. “The value of human life is not different in different countries, only its fragility.” The value of human life varies with the individual. For some, the life of anyone outside their immediate circle is of no value.

  10. Hi David!! Just wanted to say I fully agree with what you say! I think it is very important to meditate on our own mortality (i.e “memento mori”). In fact, it’s very curious what can happen when some people are faced strongly with their own death: they become at peace, they realise their true self.

    I think it’s very important to ask ourselves “why am I anxious of death?”. Death is a certainty, so why are we anxious of it? (Note: “anxious” is a better term as it implies an “unease”. When we experience fear we can sometimes know what to do. e.g. if a lion entered the room I would be afraid, but I would also be thinking “ok, how can I get out of this situation?”, death however we can not escape)

    – above are rhetorical questions: the answer I believe is because most people today identify with their minds (perhaps *their* consciousness). Hence, when they die, they no longer exist.

    That is a very self-centred way of viewing things. The universe will continue to exist after we die. Consciousness in others will continue to exist (in other humans). In fact, the more we think about it, we realise the way we perceive death is bit of an illusion (I know this sounds spiritual bs, but I trust that you’ll hear me out).

    An example I like to give:

    Assume I die 5 seconds after submitting this comment. What would change in the world? Nothing! All that I have done, I have already done. All the actions I did in this life, I already did. What would happen however is your mind would have to adjust itself to a new reality in which I am no longer alive (I would not be able to make future comments, there would be a funeral etc). But note: none of those future posts have happened yet! So we haven’t *lost* anything. The only things that changed is how your (and others) minds would think about the future.

    Here’s another example: if you are conscious you are not dead. If you are dead you are not conscious. Hence, you can not experience death. So actually, what you are anxious about is the transition from being alive to being dead (the loss of agency). But note in order for you to experience loss of agency you need to be conscious, hence not dead.

    Wholeheartedly recommend John Vervaeke’s lecture on the Epicureans: https://youtu.be/rpndwf45nao?t=1059 (which inspired the points about “anxiety” vs “fear” and the last example)

    John Vervaeke btw is currently an Assistant Profesor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Toronto.

    Not sure if this helps, but I hope to give you an idea of why I say “death is an illusion”.

    Best Wishes!!
    Eduard

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    https://notthegrubstreetjournal.com/2021/03/26/wikipedia-encyclopedia-or-the-new-reuters/

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