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15445052 No.15445052 [Reply] [Original]

Is civilization a giant cope so we can avoid thinking about death? Was Diogenes therefore right all along?

>> No.15445058

>>15445052
Civilization is a giant cope so we can avoid thinking about life bro

>> No.15445105

>>15445058
Well, that's just the flip-side of the coin; deny death and uncertainty and you deny the constraints that make life interesting and worthwhile.

>> No.15445125
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15445125

>>15445052

>> No.15446103

Yes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denial_of_Death

>> No.15446110

>>15445052
>is a massive structure composed of billions of discrete conscious entities reducible to a meme word I read on the internet?
No

>> No.15446114

>>15445052
IMO fear is the driving force of all behavior

>> No.15446120

>>15445052
Maybe not exactly death

>> No.15446128

>>15445052
>civilization
That's religion's purpose actually.

>> No.15446201

>>15445052
Civilization is just too broad a concept. It's too complex to reduce to the fear of death. It exists not just to shield us from things that cause or remind us of death, but goes far beyond that. I'm not going to pretend that much of life isn't different expressions of avoiding death -- life implies death, after all; without death there is nothing for life to distinguish itself from. Civilization protects us, but it also allows us to live more comfortably, allows us to express our desire to carve structure out of a still-entropic universe. Your question, I believe, can be reduced to whether or not a human being can do anything that isn't explicitly intended to avoid thinking about death. The answer to that is unequivocally yes, since we are doing it right now. We are consciously engaging with the concept of death; that is the thing which is happening right now. What facilitates this conversation, this message that I'm writing right now? Yeah, civilization. I don't know anything about Diogenes or copes, but I'm confident that life can be more than just reactionary to the fear of death.

>> No.15447429

We have an in-built fear of death for evolutional reasons. But for these same reasons we have other instincts. the most obvious one being a desire to procreate. So it would be more correct to say that civilization is a giant cope to avoid thinking about death and have sex.

>> No.15448158

>>15445052
read Ernest Becker
for a psychological take read the denial of death
for a societal take read the birth and death of meaning
the first is excellent, up there with ecclesiastes for explaining human condition imo

>> No.15448255

>>15448158
That's high praise for Ernest Becker, I'll look him up.

>> No.15448347

>>15445052
Diogenes never said that. You have to read writings on him, not speculate about his thing after gazing at his akuma eyes in a barrel meme pic.

>> No.15448411 [DELETED] 

We live in a great city luminous enough to make us believe we will never die.
Get your living in now, kiddos.

>> No.15448524

>>15448347
The reason I brought up Diogenes, is because he believed that society gives us false desires and a need to perpetuate our vanity that keep us from true happiness. Hence Diogenes eschewed society, preferring to live like a dog. Also Diogenes made nothing but memes his whole life, he was a proto-shitposter if ever there was one.

The connection to Terror Management Theory is obvious; the false social desires that keep us from considering our mortality, Diogenes would say also keep us from true happiness.

>> No.15448580

>>15445052
yes, but i got this idea from ligotti

>> No.15449696

Bump