[ExI] Psychology Today Article: "The Boy Who Wants to LiveForever..."

[Lee Corbin]

Jeff writes

> From: "Jeff Davis" <jrd1415 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2007 2:20 PM


> From the Psychoogy Today piece (with comments inserted  thusly: [comment] ) :
> 
> > When reminded of death by something as simple as a photo of a grave,
> > people react by adhering more tightly to their social values and their
> > self-image.  [You mean they go back to their habitual, everyday-life
> > concerns?!!]  Liberals become more tolerant, religious people more
> > spiritual, racists more consumed with hate.  [Why "more"?  Why not
> > "once again?] 

Poor writing, that's all.

> > "By being a good American, a caring parent, a committed
> > sports fan, a creative musician, or a brilliant scientist, and by
> > believing in the ultimate importance and value of such pursuits, one
> > is able to feel part of something that extends into eternity",

Actually, that's what I also think is going on. An urge one has, say, to
know all about the periodic table in many cases (e.g. me) can be traced
to wanting to know things eternally true, or, as a mystic might say, to
become One with that knowledge.

> [Or maybe it's just part of what engages them, by default, in the present,
> when they wake up each morning.]

Yes, maybe.  I take it that you don't have the same internal reactions?


> >  writes University of Maryland psychologist Mark Dechesne in a recent
> > paper on the subject of terror management theory [How very "post 9/11".
> > Is the job market good for "terror management professionals" or am I
> > being rude?],

Heh, heh.  In this case, there doesn't seem to be a difference between 
being truthful and being rude  :-)

> >  the branch of psychology that tries to explain this behavior.
> 
> I've always been skeptical of (and annoyed by) this view, that
> everything we do in living is somehow a response to some sort
> of chronic "terror" we have about our inevitable death.

Even if you're overstating it a bit ("everything"), I totally agree.
Until you've questioned it, however, I had just assumed that 
this kind of claim was in fact true of most people.   

But surely, reflective homo sapiens since the advent of language
do understand in some sense that death is one of the very worst
things that can happen to one.  Part of the problem, however, is
this notion of death "happening" to one, when what we all know
to be true is that death is merely the cessation of any more things
happening to one.

> I'm not buying it.  Am I death obsessed, but blocking it from my
> consciousness?   Is it maybe a cultural thing where some people
> -- say the religiously indoctrinated -- are in fact death obsessed,
> and others  -- say secularists or those not exposed to religious
> indoctrination in their formative years -- are not?

You're surely correct here. First, neither you nor I are evidently
at all death-obsessed, but even more clearly, the truly religious
who are very seriously able to believe in an afterlife are even
less bothered by death itself.  After all, they (if they're serious
and sincere) have bliss to look forward to, and it isn't even
chancy like uploading.

> Or is the "terror of death" thesis more or less bogus -- the
> invention of authoritarians of one stripe or another: clerics
> who arrogate "God's authority" as a means of asserting
> dominance over lay people, or "psychologists" who, disguised
> as "healers", seek to dominate based on "scientific" authority?

Marvin Minsky pointed out that there is no "instinct to avoid death".
But if you live in the wrong part of town, you might be "terrorized"
at the thought of robbery or rape. So if robbery or rape can scare
the bejesus out of you (www.bejesus.com) then surely the threat
of cessation of existence should be worth a little terror.  No?

As for me, I'm guessing from what you've written that I'm like you,
and I don't fear the cessation itself, I just vastly dread the idea of
missing out on a lot of great experiences.

> Personally, I have my cryonics arrangements in place, which I assert
> has nothing to do with dying and everything to do with living.  Am I
> deluding myself?

No way are you deluding yourself!  It's those people living in fear
of death and who reject out of hand the possibility of beating it.

> Best, Jeff Davis

Nice to hear from you again, Jeff!

Lee