/lit/ - Literature

>>19231490
>Why bother doing anything if there is no long-term in it for you and only a return to nothingness, the loss of the identity that you've cultivated for years upon years?
>Could there truly be more? Can a man truly be happy with Thanatos standing right beside him at all times?

It is quite simple, friend. Once we do away with all this intellectualizing, analyzing, screaming at each other going back and forth whilst looking for any sort of objective "straw" to grasp, we will sit down, backs to the wall, draw a deep breath and exhale it slowly. And then it will come, to some of us. Just as Wittgenstein intended the reader to use his Tractatus not as a guide, but as a ladder, we will know that we had to climb these intellectual and philosophical mountains only to discover that they could have never given us a "truth" or even a glimpse of one. But without the climb, this knowledge would have been an abstraction, an idea, a theory, one of the countless conceptual objects that we surround ourselves by. In living it, in climbing those mountains, we bring this idea to reality, and only then can we actually understand it.
In your post, you gave the answer yourself, because it is not a difficult answer to arrive at intellectually, but it is nearly impossible to live without first having done the climb.
>I like who I've become over the years, why must I quit functioning and denounce all that I've ever considered as beautiful?
You must not, and this is the answer you have already given yourself, the answer you suspect but cannot bring yourself to live, not yet.
I leave you now with a quote of an interpretation of Wittgenstein's philosophy, and then give you a poem excerpt that better illustrate what I attempted to say.

"It is as if I were to point out a cloud in the sky and ask if you, too, see it as shaped like a lion - and look, now it's more like a dragon. There's the jaw, there's the tail... do you see, do you see it, too? There are the wings, two holes for its eyes, now closing up in the wind... But eventually, of course, a point is reached where all explanations and references must end, when you simply have to see it yourself, where you grasp it yourself, when it must show itself to you..."

"I’m tired; what enters whole gets torn,
gets examined, prodded, rearranged and packaged,
then formulated back together.
For once, I would like to see the dragon in the clouds."

I am part of humanity's long march towards communism

>>19231571
Good post. OP and all whiners are experiencing the stages of grief with regard to being alive. Fear of mortality is a misplaced fear that life matters, and you're wasting it.

>>19231490
>>19231571
>>19231610
Society's fixation on death is a perfect storm of our worst qualities.
-cultivates anxiety
-out of our control
-self-centering
-promotes escapism and procrastination
-product of greed, regret, and sadness
-no lifespan will ever be enough
-we'll never "save" others

Skating uphill against this nonsense is an epochal waste of time and a philosophical pit. Consider instead what you'll do while you're alive.

>>19231742
I feel like either I don't understand you fully, or I agree, partially. The ceaseless push against decline is all we have, without which the realization of concepts into something that can have a bigger impact on our lives is impossible. To realize an idea, you must sacrifice to it time and energy, both of which are finite in your life, which is what makes the realized product of hte idea inherently more meaningful. Life is just there, the climb has the capacity to make life subjectively meaningful, and that's good enough.

>>19231759
it's a mistake to think meaning arrived as revealed truth. The closest thing we have to higher meaning is nothing more than a collection of subjective lower meanings. The idol you fear is merely a statue of old men, their lives long forgotten, their idea transmuted to the infinite. The vastness of meaning that crushes you is millions wide, but only one deep. Contrary to literal interpretations of religion, no one who ever contributed meaning has really been to the "other side." If you disagree, define a higher meaning.

>>19231490
>So you can't counter this in any way can you?
presupposing materialism to be true isn’t an argument you dummy

I didn't get at the end of the book that we had to merge psychology and religion or psychology had to become a religion to be more precise.
What does that mean?

>>19231571
>"I’m tired; what enters whole gets torn,
>gets examined, prodded, rearranged and packaged,
>then formulated back together.
>For once, I would like to see the dragon in the clouds."

Nice, but Whitman did it better.

>When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
>When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
>When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
>When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
>How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
>Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
>In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
>Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

>Becker: We all need meaning to live and thrive
You: I agree
>Becker: The meaning makes you feel like you can overcome death.
You: Yeah I can see that.
>Becker: But obviously you can't overcome death, not really.
You: Yeah, obviously.
>Becker: Therefore, all our sources of meaning are forms of coping. We should examine the ones we build our lives around to make sure they are healthy sources. And we should not hurt others to further our impossible aims. Conflicting sources of meaning are the causes of great suffering in our world.
You: OMG my dream of retiring on a sailboat is ruined I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL MYSELF AHHHHHH SHUT UP EVIL JEWS YOU RUINED MY LIFE AGAIN AHHHHH I AM GOING TO DESTROY YOU AND ANYONE ASSOCIATED WITH YOU FOREVER YOU HECKIN JEW PESSIMIST GOD IS REAL MY SAILBOAT WILL BE PURCHASED I WILL BE HAPPY THEN I KNOW IT I KNOW IT

>>19231594
You are a slave to an idea that gives you meaning, which is in direct conflict with other ideas that give other people meaning. You are an NPC and a sad slave

>>19231930
>You are a slave to an idea that gives you meaning
How are you any different? How are any of us?

>>19231937
The meeting in my life comes exclusively - EXCLUSIVELY - from love

>>19231944
OK, but how is that not in direct conflict with other ideas that give other people meaning?

>>19231937
idea = value is childish forebrain thinking. We all use meaning as a tool, but not everyone gets the cart before the horse. Ideas are derived from real things, hence the distinction between the two and our jealous inability to contain truth within words.

>>19231948
It's love. A feeling, not some gay ideology. My love for family and friends is the meaning. There's no conflict to have when you are giving love.

>>19231490
Lmao do you really think we just become nothingness? Do you really think escaping this place would be that easy? No friend, you just get reincarnated. The ride never ends.

>>19232016
living repeatedly while not remembering previous lives is exactly the same as dying forever each time

>>19231490
>So you can't counter this in any way can you? Why bother doing anything if there is no long-term in it for you and only a return to nothingness, the loss of the identity that you've cultivated for years upon years?
"Doing" is something that putthujanas do.


>I'm perplexed at how we continue to move despite there being a chance of us randomly ceasing to exist - at any time, at any moment and all progress goes to waste afterwards.
For the worldling, they move based on one of the three types of craving: craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, or craving for annihilation. All three are manifestations of the same mistaken self-identity view. The enlightened one acts without acting.

>This is a win for jaded nihilists and/or momentary hedonists, but a loss for people who want to continue living and seeing what the world has in store.
If you wish to continue living as a sensual being, you can just do it, like everyone else does, despite the senseless absurdity.

>I like who I've become over the years, why must I quit functioning and denounce all that I've ever considered as beautiful?
You don't. You just have to see that it's not yours, never was. Since how could something out of your control be you? How could it be yours?

>Life is a cruel experiment in which you have to delude yourself into thinking that there is a higher purpose for us and a stress-free afterlife, but in the actual reality that we reside in and after that, we're insignificant.

You're not insignificant. That's an external point of view, which is impossible. You can't go outside of yourself and declare yourself "Insignificant". Your experience is literally all you know.

Furthermore, significance is something that comes from your own mind, not from externally. Refer to your childhood and the things that USED to be significant to you which no longer are. If significance is an objective quality then those things would STILL BE significant, but they're not.

>There's been a thousand threads on the book and subject, yes, but I'd like to see different responses and opinions, and if there's people who are willing to put in the effort to convince me that doing nothing is wrong.

It isn't wrong or right. The only worthwhile thing is liberating yourself from the mistaken view of the personal master and controller of phenomena

>Could there truly be more? Can a man truly be happy with Thanatos standing right beside him at all times?

Yes...

The wise one, learned, does not feel
The pleasant and painful mental feeling.
This is the great difference between
The wise one and the worldling.

For the learned one who has comprehended Dhamma,
Who clearly sees this world and the next,
Desirable things do not provoke his mind,
Towards the undesired he has no aversion.

For him attraction and repulsion no more exist;
Both have been extinguished, brought to an end.
Having known the dust-free, sorrowless state,
The transcender of existence rightly understands.

god i hope my existential wasn't as boring to other people as OP's is

>>19232027
Actually it is much worse. But that is the myth of Sisyphus. The other pill to swallow is I am you and you are me. Every person with a horrific disfigurement or mental retardation is also you just on the carousel a different spin. There is no escape from the suffering.

>>19232056
Suffering can be reduced and fun can be had. Also I have bipolar disorder. I have and will experience highs that border on the human limit of ecstasy (and where madness begins)

>>19231571
If I interpreted your message correctly, anonymous poster, your solution would be... to simply live and focus on the shenanigans of the present, regardless of, impending, sooner or later, cessation of all our consciousnesses.

That's all I needed to hear. Unfortunate however, that none can escape the grasp of involuntary termination after a certain amount of time has passed. Ultimately saddening (and will continually be, for the rest of my lifespan) that our time here is limited and we can't be ourselves as much as we wanted to.

You'd think there would be more - a sequel, or prolongation perhaps (depends on your beliefs, but which belief is objectively correct? Which is the most truthful? Do truthful beliefs exist?) but, as hard as it is for me to say that's pure idealism that cannot be proven by any one of us here, on our planet. None have come back from non-existence, none have given us fair evidence regarding life after death, and for the last time once more, none have demonstrated (clearly enough) that we'll be ongoing entities for what goes beyond our mortal understanding - especially with our original line of thought(s), and understandings, our fundamental principals and what makes us who we are - that I believe will not happen soon.

I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing nowadays, I'm in bad shape but is it worth repairing yourself after you've found out about the cold-hearted truth? But what if I can't create future happiness (or general, loose meaning) for myself anymore? What do you do if the present time is unbearable? I had a lovely childhood in which I never pondered about ceasing to live but the game's changed now, not a mere light change but a sudden brutal realization occurred to me when I stopped being twelve years old. I was a young man incessantly running with friends enjoying my time, and wasn't forced to internally mingle with existentialism.

>>19231594
If that makes you go on with your life, I am envious. Proceed further.

>>19231884
Whatever you say, friend. Here's your obligatory reply, cherish it.

>>19231973
I can vouch for you.

>>19232016
No, obviously not. Which is arguably worse as I could become anything in the next life and not stick to being the person who I am, currently. I believe in Nietzsche's eternal recurrence concept, albeit more extreme, and not reappearing on planet Earth but on a more horrific territory with no recollection of past lives, as an extraterrestrial being. And this randomizes itself for an infinite amount of time, never giving a person whose perished a break.

I would advise for every anonymous user gazing at my thread to view my text through a tremendously skeptical (additionally attentive if possible) lens for I cannot extrapolate to the point of full coherence, and instead I'm giving you all that I can with my (limited) knowledge of the English language. I am admittedly a pseudo-intellectual so that will likely damage the prose and quality of what I export out of my head.

>>19232157
on the other hand, life is of indefinite length since you don't know the future. If you didn't know about death, life would seem infinite. Whereas if humans lived 1000 years, dreading death all the while, it would seem too short.

Character limitations suck. I would have gone for 4,000 but that may have had too much fluff that nobody would've (or could've) read, so I'm content with what came out.

>>19232259
Yes, your statement isn't false and that may relieve a person in some way.

>>19232047
Mine is and I acknowledge it endlessly, it is the lack of repetition and effort which further degrades my ability to write interestingly, lack of difference.

>>19232034
Wonderful response, I'll have to answer you in full length if I'm capable though that may not actualize as the thread is actively decaying and I'm in an area of lethargy.

>>19232341
>Yes, your statement isn't false and that may relieve a person in some way.
It implicitly doesn't relieve you. I'm telling you this fixation on death is pure projection of your life insecurities, intellectually void, and a self-propagating waste of time.

>>19231884
Only good post in this thread

Becker isn't taking a stance about how we should act. He's attempting to describe the Human Condition in general terms: you're scared of dying, and you can't Not Die, so you have to cope somehow. That's the whole book.

OP interpretation that life is meaningless is indicative of a weak soul who can't self-sustain enough to thrive in an absurd world

>>19232504
I see. Thank you.

>>19232569
If his word was true all along then we can close the thread. That, and the first post of the thread was the end. Nothing else to discuss. I'm a weak man searching for anything else but pure cope in these hard times.

>>19231490
Children. Book faggot.

>>19231490
Imagine wasting this much time and effort on this, I bet you've never touched a woman (besides your mom)

>>19232611
Hug, anon. I sincerely hope that you find what you're looking for.

>>19232705
>>19232611
Hang in there buddy
The book wrecked me for ~6 months after I finished it. It's a tough pill to swallow but it's not necessarily hopeless. Becker just doesn't help you find a way out

>>19232721
Any recommendation on where to go from here?

>>19231490

It's a different story if reincarnation is real.
Then you need to make the world a better place, because you'll re-enter it as a helpless baby.
That's enough for me.

>and only a return to nothingness
The issue with the viewpoint of “a return to nothingness” is that this all came from that “nothingness,” so no one with any sense is all that confident that that “nothingess” we’re returning to won’t return again to something else

>>19232679
Arguable. Those either last long somehow or they perish and degrade as quick as you. Highly brittle and I wouldn't see myself as a good father so I instead choose to cut the wire early on in life.

>>19232691
You call that effort? That should be the bare minimum length of any post on /lit/. Where do you think we are? Don't bump the thread.

>>19232705
I've given you my mark of appreciation before so no need for a second time. I see you there, standing. Best of luck, I also want to be speaking genuinely and say that you rid yourself of any harm that obstructs you from progressing into the lighter side of life. Pessimism is a mind parasite, I don't want it inside of me but it got in either way.

>>19232721
Truthful comment. It's a phase and I'll likely get over it, but it doesn't help when you're in a sad state already. Godspeed.

>>19232773
Yeah, there has to be another path somewhere and not just a direct plunge into oblivion.

>>19232763
Not bad.

This has been tiresome enough as is.

>>19232773
Nothingness refers to _your_ nothingness. The universe will continue on. There will be births, deaths, and eventual extinction. But the matter that makes up the universe will continue to evolve.

Your consciousness will never return. Nobody will know or remember you. No change you make upon our earth will matter. You are once again nothing… with the same impact as prior to birth.

>>19232796
My remark about effort wasn't about your post, but about your entire venture regarding this topic.

>>19232679
Immortialization is a death cope.

>>19231490
I'm having a good time and living in the moment. Literally everything is fleeting, nothing lasts. How does that mean I shouldn't do anything? Plus death should be viewed as a sweet release, the finish line. As life is full of suffering. My suffering isn't pointless in that I trade it for happiness, and triumph at certain intervals in my life which makes it worth it. Because at the end of the day that's the request thing there is. The feeling of the moment, our passion, our drive, our will. You can take a step back and see the show for what it is but I'm gonna take part in it, learn the game, and have fun. I wish you guys could see it the same way but regardless I truly wish you all the best.

>>19233085
>request thing there is
Realest* thing there is.

>>19232611
>I see. Thank you.
my pleasure. What will you do now that you're free of irresponsible, escapist narratives about death? Maybe now you can address what's really causing these feelings.

>>19232739
I recommend Cioran, A Short History of Decay or The Trouble With Being Born. Cioran believes there is no possible meaning to life and is obsessed, mentally ill, and funny about it. The point will be to drive home the inherent meaninglessness and challenge you to dwell on it without cracking.

>>19231490
Death is tragic but I dont think it makes life worthless. That's just how it is, duality of good and bad. After you die there will still be other good things even if you are gone. Even after we all die I'm sure the universe contains other good things.

>>19231490
>Why bother doing anything if
Feels better than doing nothing

you act because you are flawed, not because you identify with your passed karma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVrFuGJ2QjQ
if you identify with your passed karma
you are treating your body as dead nigger storage
passed karma = dead nigger

>>19232157
>I am admittedly a pseudo-intellectual so that will likely damage the prose and quality of what I export out of my head.
And its one of the better written posts on this board, hilarious!

>>19232845
>Your consciousness will never return
How on earth can you know that?

>>19233792
I hate to break it to you but materialism is true, anon.

>>19232569
>Only good post in this thread
Thanks
This book is largely misunderstood on /lit/, everyone gets hung up on the idea that we have to manufacture meaning. They're triggered - having their life-lies gently questioned makes them shut down and get defensive, just as Becker says.
I don't usually buy Freud, but it does seem like a "matter of life and death" type response here and in real life. Death anxiety might really be the underlying motive. I think a better story is simply evolved instinct to "do something goal-oriented" - it could benefit the individual and the group so it would be selected for. Then we have no need for death anxiety to be the motive. The greater message still stands but the title of the book is rendered idiotic

>>19233869
I have the same thought as you about the other motives. Not that the one he describes doesn't exist, but I dont think it is like lurking beneath every other impulse we have. I see our psychology more as a bundle of various impulses than some single equation where one motive directs all the other ones.

Maybe that's untrue though who knows. Maybe we really do have like concentric rings of impulse with one at the foundation.

>>19233881
Even if we did, that wouldn't make it more valid than other different impulses.

>>19231866
it means us psychology chads are now god

>>19233859
That would make recurrence possible, then.
What's so special about you this time around that the universe can't shit it out again, given enough time and space?

>>19233881
Yeah, it doesn't seem reasonable.
The ideas from the book that are valuable and "true" as far as I see:
1. there is no true, "real" meaning to life
2. living without stove life meaning is debilitating to almost all people

The source of meaning we choose for ourselves is inherently not universal, since there are no "real" meanings. Therefore we should be less defensive about our own. If there was some public understanding of this maybe there'd be peace, but I doubt that. The most aggressive and dogmatic BS will usually win against "accepting" ideas/cultures/arts.

because i'm bored and there's nothing better to do. most of the time.
the rest of the time i am compelled. if you've never experienced this feeling you may as well be dead already.

and of course it's all for nothing.
but i'm bored and i need to it.

>>19233952
>stove life meaning
(some) life meaning

>>19231490
The personality and all its accumulation over a lifetime is only a means of further elevating that higher Self, the Ego.

>>19233941
Oh no, what if you're right

>>19231490

"By this sign you shall know them,
The breaking of the sword,
And man no more a free knight,
That loves or hates his lord.

"Yea, this shall be the sign of them,
The sign of the dying fire;
And Man made like a half-wit,
That knows not of his sire.

"What though they come with scroll and pen,
And grave as a shaven clerk,
By this sign you shall know them,
That they ruin and make dark;

"By all men bond to Nothing,
Being slaves without a lord,
By one blind idiot world obeyed,
Too blind to be abhorred;

"By terror and the cruel tales
Of curse in bone and kin,
By weird and weakness winning,
Accursed from the beginning,
By detail of the sinning,
And denial of the sin;

"By thought a crawling ruin,
By life a leaping mire,
By a broken heart in the breast of the world,
And the end of the world's desire;

"By God and man dishonoured,
By death and life made vain,
Know ye the old barbarian,
The barbarian come again—

"When is great talk of trend and tide,
And wisdom and destiny,
Hail that undying heathen
That is sadder than the sea.

"In what wise men shall smite him,
Or the Cross stand up again,
Or charity or chivalry,
My vision saith not; and I see
No more; but now ride doubtfully
To the battle of the plain."

And the grass-edge of the great down
Was cut clean as a lawn,
While the levies thronged from near and far,
From the warm woods of the western star,
And the King went out to his last war
On a tall grey horse at dawn.

>>19234043
I don't know. Nobody does, but the thought is getting around.

>>19231964
Unironically the Marxist take.

op is a shill from the becker foundation, there's no other explanation for him posting threads of this utterly mediocre book day after day.

>>19234059
Describes the modern world perfectly except the closest thing our generation had to Alfred the Great was a crazy WoW-addicted Norwegian.

>>19233869
>>19233881
>>19233952
Valuable insight here. I agree the book is misunderstood. You guys seem to understand it the way I do.

I also thought placing death anxiety as the absolute source of all human activity was stretching the concept too thin. I'm not sure how else it could be structured but I don't think that's quite right.

Responding to avoid anxiety is a reactive and negative action pattern. I'd like to think that we're capable of proactive, positive action. If there were a second, positive core of behavior I think it would be the "divine spark" or "inner god" that elevates us to a status of lesser diety, as he mentions in the beginning of the book.

If death-terror is not the end of the story, I think the next best idea is that we have both visceral terror and abstract joy to express through our behavior.

That could also be cope though...

>>19234364
i agree most people misread it here, but even then it's still mostly wrong, since the average person goes through life with little consciousness of anything let alone death. most people live life on autopilot.

but the alternative you're looking for is norman o. brown's life against death. it's way better than becker, but brown doesn't have a foundation to make shill threads for him from beyond the grave.

insightful but false

>>19234119
I'm not the person who said you were a slave to an idea. However, inasmuch as marxists recognize the importance of reality versus ideas, today's communist should note that outright revolution has historically brought the fiercest reactions. If Marxist utopia arrives, it will do so largely in its own time, and making war to bring it about is SUS afffff.

>>19234378
>Brown later called parts of Life Against Death "quite immature" and wrote of his Love's Body (1966) that it was written to confuse any followers he acquired due to the book and destroy its positions.
refuted by the author himself

>>19234485
Lol

>responses engaging with ideas in OP post
"that's nice retard, DYER?"
>responses about whether the author was correct when he read the proposition put forth by the interpretation of his contemporaries in entirely different cultures about the subjective reality of our objective circumstances in his three-volume seminal opus
"YES. Wow. This anon speaks my mind."

>>19234364
>>19233869
Freud correctly identifies the source of anxiety in early life experiences and not on some supposed worry about death.

Becker advocates the Kierkegaardian approach towards the end of the book. Giving yourself over to a higher power etc.

>>19231875
Too bad he's a shit poet

>Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. Following the assassination of his close friend Moritz Schlick, Gödel had an obsessive fear of being poisoned; he would eat only food that his wife, Adele, prepared for him. Late in 1977, she was hospitalized for six months and could subsequently no longer prepare her husband's food. In her absence, he refused to eat, eventually starving to death. He weighed 29 kilograms (65 lb) when he died. His death certificate reported that he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance" in Princeton Hospital on January 14, 1978.
Any book recommandation for delving inside Kurt Gödel's life or pic related is a good fit?

>>19231490
You've created problem for which there's no solution. Just don't think about death. Problem solved.

>>19231490
Keiji Nishitani defeated nihilism before The Denial of Death was even written.

>>19235470
Redpill me on Nishitani

>>19231490
As I'm a jaded nihilist given to episodes of hedonism, I personally see no issue.

>>19235486
needs a third panel where he's jamming to himself as a decrepit old man dying completely alone

>>19236865
Yes pal most people these day die alone in ICU, surrounded by bunch workers who paid to take care of you.

>>19236872
why go to the hospital if nothing matters? Not like it's a pleasant place.

>>19236879
You will probably have no choice

>>19236883
There's always suicide, no need to compromise your beliefs just because society gets an idea in its head.

>>19232157
This is what we got.
We are in a world where death exists. It will not go away. Only, possibly, you can go away so you never see death again.
But why throw the baby with the water?

>>19236879
If you love your loved ones then why you should tell them about your disease? This will make them extremely sad. Don't tell them you're diseased otherwise they will be filled with excruciating despair which might lead them to nihilism.

>>19236913
>why tell them
because finding out all at once is more traumatic. Did you try really hard to think of something an empathetic person would do, and end up with a scenario that could only arise out of selfishness? kek

>>19231490
>Why bother doing anything if there is no long-term in it for you and only a return to nothingness, the loss of the identity that you've cultivated for years upon years?
Because I want to you stupid fucking bitch

>>19236933
>because finding out all at once is more traumatic.
Not at all. They will have to suffer the process along with you. Don't you know how painful it gets to have diseased loved one? Your physical body won't let your memory fade away through the duration of your disease. The news of your death will one instant of shock and your memory will start fading away after first month. But with your disease they will suffer along you for months and years.

>>19236952
If someone in my family or a close friend had a terminal disease and never told me, I'd take it as a sign of distrust.

>>19236965
You're thinking way too emotionally, think about long term effects. They well being should be more important to you than their feelings.

"everything is cope" is actually the biggest cope of all

I'm coping, so what? You, me, everyone is according to Becker. Why is everyone here obsessed with this book?

>>19232157
Damn man, is this what zero pussy does to a mf?
Sad

It was the best of Becker threads, it was the worst of Becker threats

>>19232569
Is that screenshot from "Kill 6 Billion Demons"?
Damn, it's the second time I see something related to it this week - And I actually bought the first 4 books when I finished reading the start of the web comic.
Cool

>>19236913
>If you love your loved ones then why you should tell them about your disease?
So we are getting to the point of the thread?
OP Johnny is sad because he got diagnosed with terminal cancer, and is seeking cope?
Just fucking say it so we can go straight to the core of the matter.

If I read this as a depressive schizoid with little lust for life and "goals" what will actually change?

>>19237429
The number of sales and benefits the author has.

>>19235276
But he also notes that the status of Saint cannot be self-determined by all of us, and the true knights of faith can only be formed by receiving grace from God. It's not a solution that works for everyone, only those chosen

>As anal play is an essential exercise in human mastery, it is better not interfered with. If the adult anxiously cuts it short, then he charges the animal function with an extra dose of anxiety.
>It becomes more threatening and has to be extra-denied and extra-avoided as an alien part of oneself. This extra-grim denial is what we mean by the "anal character." An "anal" upbringing, then, would be an affirmation, via intense repression
>Penis-envy, then, arises from the fact that the mother's genitals have been split off from her body as a focalization of the problem of decay and vulnerability. Bernard Brodsky remarks about his female patient: "Her concept of woman as fecal greatly stimulated her penis envy, since the lively erectile penis was the antonym of the dead, inert stool"
>Phyllis Greenacre--outstanding student of the child's experiences--had already remarked on this same equation in the child's perception: penis = movement, therefore life; feces = inertia, therefore death
at last i truly see

>>19237429
You'd probably feel relief, in that your lifestyle is justifiable

>>19232845
>the afterlife being a continuation of your individual consciousness.

Why are protestants and athiests so fucking dense.

Seriously though, how are we supposed to take Becker seriously when he lazily arrives at the conclusion of his own annihilation as though such a thing was guaranteed?

>>19231571
This is a good post.

>>19237429
You're better off reading nietzsche or schopenhauer in that case, atleast they're optimistic about nihilism.

>>19232157
>None have come back from non-existence
How do you know that?
>How do I coexist with unpleasant truths?
The same way you did before you knew they were there.
>What if I can't get over this?
You will. You're one well timed set of jingly keys from optimistic absurdism.

>>19231490

>>19231490
>Why bother doing anything if there is no long-term in it for you and only a return to nothingness, the loss of the identity that you've cultivated for years upon years?

Because it's extremely comical.
The abyss is great, lots of fun, can't get enough it.
Read Beckett's Trilogy and see for yourself. You won't stop laughing.

>>19231490
By simply not caring.

>>19238318
In other words, cope

>>19237098
If everyone is coping, no one is coping