There can be no life without death. Death is the dark cloud that hovers above us, blowing at us daunting reminders of his inevitable existence. The affair between life and death hangs between heaven and hell. This natural force is one of the four “ultimate concerns,” and is a considerable part of our psyches. Death is at the core of fear: he is fear.
The threat of extinction is the utmost uncertainty, from illnesses to car accidents, our existence is fickle and can disintegrate without warning. Our ego, personality, ambition, purpose, and potential are all gone with the wind—as if we were never here. This weight is an inherent part of being human and thus depicted in the arts ever since the Paleolithic Era; it is the main subject of biblical tales, like that of Atlas. This burden affects every part of our lives: our decisions, values, career, family, and connection to the present moment. Death can manifest as the warden or as the liberator. For most of us, death is the inhibitor of our authentic selves, leaving us no option but to avert from it, we sell our souls for the comfort of denial. But, by trudging in death’s fog we can transform it into the liberator and free our souls.
Death, Fear, and the Psyche
As children, we were creative and proactive, tranquil and present, full of life and wonder. As we grow older, our uniqueness wanes and societal influences prevail—we call this “maturing.” Some time passes, and we have to face the world on our own, we need to be independent; the fear of accountability causes us to lose even more of ourselves and settle down for “good enough.” No one was born to build and create someone else’s dream, or someone else’s wealth, yet most of us do it for the majority of our lives, we do it for a pittance of our work’s economical value, which goes into the hand of our directors. But, we are comfortable enough not doing anything about it, when acting on it means to facing fear and uncertainty—where death lies—we rather stay where we are.
Of course, bearing the thought that we are giving our life away for something we do not believe in and neglecting our aspirations will torment us, establishing the need for a defense mechanism. Modernity floods us with the distractions for which our lower selves yearn. We immerse in popular culture, trends, politics, and consumerism. We focus on climbing the corporate ladder and steering office politics. We are suffocating from drama and pleasure, which keeps us busy enough to not live up to our potential—since reaching our potential requires us to root our feet against fear and death.
Culture as a Fear-Based Entity
From a cultural perspective, I would argue that fear, and its outgrowths of hatred and greed, are the main culprits in the way we evolved and the vulgar state of politics around the world. Society provides us with the ground, which gives us safety, above that we are eligibly free to build our own lives—those are critical components for a healthy, safe society. But they do not take into account the psychology of the common individual and his fear-based approach to life, thus giving way for exploitation and disproportional power to those at the top, who now dictate the moral system, which is guided by their own will and fear.
Angst
It was Søren Kierkegaard who first introduced the Danish word angst to the English language. The word represents a profound sense of dread and anxiety attached to the human condition: the freedom of choice, which is both appealing and terrifying. It is the responsibility and absurdity that comes with it that creates this infusion of fear. Angst causes us to live halfheartedly, we rather cling to the past and future than embrace the infinitude of the present.
We trap ourselves in a warm, comfortable cage, and we even occasionally look behind the bars—deep inside, we long to be out of the cage, but we are too afraid to leave it. We engross our minds with facades, establishing and attaching ourselves to heroes and villains as a way to create a story and a persona for ourselves: sports teams, political parties, social media, gossip, ideologies, etc. We hypnotize ourselves and others to believe we are out of the cage by tightening the security.
A Possible Cure
Enough people who change their ways will cause a shift in society, ergo we should first look and better ourselves. To break away from fear, we need to embrace uncertainty. This should be a gradual process, otherwise, we risk traumatization, as described in Jean-Paul Sartre’s book “Nausea,” we cannot jump into the deep end. A practical mantra that will evolve in meaning is: remove distractions, add passion. Removing distraction is dismantling the cage, adding passion is exploring the environment. Doing that we willingly hold the torch and dive into the thick fog of being alive.
Compassion and Patience
I have only started to dip my toes in the water of uncertainty, I still have a tedious way ahead of me, and I do fear and hide frequently. I negotiated with the thoughts of giving up more times than I would like to admit: selling my soul, shrouding in pleasure and order. But, I keep forward, step after step, as long as I do not give up I evolve. This undertaking is for self-love, fighting the terrorized part of ourselves will only cause it to fight harder, by being compassionate with it we uncover paradise.
“When it’s time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.”
Henry David Thoreau