The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
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The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
Death is a fact that no one can deny, for the fate of all living things is to die. Most people find it hard to accept, even though it has such a profound effect on how we live our lives and the decisions that we take. In “The denial of death”, a book by Ernest Becker, which is one of the greatest intellectual and philosophical works of the 20th century, the author states that he wrote that book on his deathbed after he was diagnosed with colon cancer. The book contains two essential ideas. First, Human beings are unique creatures that are different from other living creatures because of their ability to envision, imagine and think. A person can envision themselves in hypothetical scenarios in the past, present and future. This leads to the realization of certain death at a moment’s notice, . A human being is born with “a fear of death” which is an existential worry that governs all that he thinks and does. The second idea of the book is that the realization that we will all die one day makes us think and act on leaving a mark and making an impact that will outlive our mortal bodies, which Ernest Becker named “the immortality project” that will immortalize our names in history. That is why many famous persons throughout history have tried to implement that idea by puttting their names on buildings, statues, paintings of themselves, or writing a book. It is safe to say that human civilization is nothing more than the result of all these immortality projects that man and woman lived through before our time. For they built cities, governments, authorities, politics, sports, art and technology. But there is a dark side “the immortality project” because on a large enough scale it could lead the breakout of war, revolutions, or mass murder like what happened in world war 1 and 2. Even on an individual scale, the failure of achieving immortality could lead to anxiety and depression. Fortunately, there is a way to beat this idea. Simply, learn to use the art of indifference where you can focus on the present and the next moment after that.
The idea: Get rid of the idea of immortality for death is inevitable
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