Final Reflection of This Journey!

What I learned during the quarter is more of the details of the Anthropocene and the aspects of death as a big concept to politics, society, and the future. I have learned more about the idea of death and realized how society utilizes death and immorality as a personal gain and a political gain. For example, the food and the laws on death and immortality projects. The one that I learned the most is how the concept of ecology and the earth is dying due to the innovations of humans. How everything we do has a feedback loop of systems. And the hardest lesson from this class that I learned is to accept our death and the earth is dying. Beforehand, I always thought death and the end of everything shrugged off negative things as “oh, we are changing for the better.” But that whole concept was not the truth, and I faced it. Besides cultural differences or religious differences, we are dying, and the earth is dying. As for the project itself, I learned that having your trauma can overshadow the more considerable collective trauma but adversely affects individuals. Therefore, many conflicts within our personal lives can intertwine with more significant aspects with people like climate change or covid.

What I gave in my action projects was my experience with trauma and relating it to collective trauma and the aspects of factors that can connect to a collective trauma like racial injustice and personal hardships related to trauma. As for the class, I will be honest and say that I wish I gave frank discussions, but the topic of death in this class hits home to me because I lost someone this year, so in a way, it was terrible timing. But I tried my best to participate in the zoom chat discussions on my thoughts and experiences. 

How does this whole experience relate to ecology, death, and the Anthropocene? The class helped me connect with my death and others, the realization of the immortality project discussions. Those discussions made my peace with death instead of fearing the concept and the afterlife due to religious constraints.

I can take away from this class because I accepted Anthropocene and death. It was a challenging course for me with the readings and the discussion, but I realize this was a great class to learn from and change perspectives.

Inner Work: the Key to Battling Capitalistic Values and Assuming Shared Responsibility

Throughout this course, I have done more unlearning than learning, trying to address my own misconceptions about society and our views on mortality. Most of these misconceptions arose from a misunderstanding of the importance of death as well as an ignorance of capitalism’s true impacts. I came to this realization when we started discussing terror management theory (TMT). I found that my fear of death was buffered by attempts to be “successful,” as deemed by our capitalistic society, and I wanted to see if my peers coped similarly. 

To determine what kinds of TMT are most prevalent, we surveyed 25 participants, asking them 7 questions that prompted thought about their mortality as well as their connection to the world system. From these interviews, we gathered that our peers were avoidant of death, saying they did not fear it, but preferred not thinking about death. Some identified self-esteem related forms of TMT, including having offspring or finding value in success and fame. Additionally, almost all participants were unable to draw the connection between their mortality and their impact on the environment. These results show that the denial of death is prevalent in our society, and that not considering death can inhibit potential climate action. 

The denial of death and self-esteem forms of TMT are both the product of living in a capitalistic society. We are constantly bombarded with the capitalistic values of individualism and consumerism, which each influence how we value our own lives, and eventual mortality. Capitalism forces us into an individual mindset, convincing us that we are “existing above or beyond biophysical process,” (Oelschlaeger). This allows humans to deny death, and live a life free of accountability to the world system. This is the root of climate change and cause of the creation of the Anthropocene. Humans have exploited the world for decades, searching for individual worth, while also destroying their own system. 

In order to acknowledge death and shift how most of society manages their terror, inner work should be encouraged. Participating in contemplative practices gives people the opportunity to understand the connectivity of the world and assume responsibility for their impact. Encouraging inner work among activists could begin a grassroots movement to mitigate climate change, with a focus on shared responsibility. I believe in the power of the people, and think that inner work among a few may instigate systemic change within our federal systems.

We are a part of nature, and nature is a part of us. This symbiotic relationship needs to be preserved through shared responsibility
Source: https://sites.tufts.edu/alexagaluppo/2018/10/06/nature-builds-far-better-than-we-do/

WORKS CITED

Oelschlaeger, Max. “History, Ecology, and the Denial of Death: A Re-Reading of Conservation, Sexual Personae, and the Good Society.” Journal of Social Philosophy, vol. 24, no. 3, 1993, pp. 19–39., https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9833.1993.tb00522.x. 

 

CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICE

I never really thought of contemplative practices before I signed up for this class. I have never done it before. But here I am, learning new things even if it’s out of my comfort zone. My life before this class was fast-paced. Even with covid hits, my life was fast-paced, and I never really took the time to use contemplative practices to clear my mind or have a different perspective. Being a first-generation kind made me not slow down in my life to think because I am always expected to get a degree, a job, and a family. I could never stop and think about my feelings or my reflection on life, which affects my mental health. I kept moving on and ignored those thoughts until I took this class. This class made me more aware of my inner work and got to know my inner work. The practices every morning during class time, when we close our eyes and the professor would give us the prompts to think about. I appreciate how I can breathe and think about what’s around me.

 

One practice that resonates with me is the one contemplative practice about the first time I did it in class. I am translucent on the contemplative practice’s subject, but I remember Death and what the matter of Death means to me. The way I experimented with my thoughts on Death as a personal subject was a gateway for me to understand the Anthropocene in this class and how Death should not be a taboo subject. It’s a part of life. The class and the practices made me realize that Death is part of our cycle. It shouldn’t be taboo or to avoid it. My family always talks about immorality projects, or they seem to want a legacy of wealth and prosperity. Our lives are so in tune within the system that we can never stop thinking and realizing our faults as people and our environment on this planet. I believe that’s why many people within my situation and my social status are struggling with it so that they could never stop and think. They keep surviving until Death or the end of the world hits them. To conclude, those contemplative practices do help see what’s ahead of you.

 

Introspection: the Antidote to Capitalism

Though I believed I had come to terms with my mortality, the contemplative practices in class helped me wander through depths I had not previously thought to explore. As an immigrant to this country, my family relied strongly on the value of hard work, and the ability to reap the fruits of your labor in America. As a result, I became invested in the allure of Capitalism, while still having concerns over its inherent inequality. This is a commonly explored topic in the book, Learning to Die in the Anthropocene. Though the new carbon-based economic system has provided an increased amount of riches and improved quality of life, there seems to be evident winners and losers. The author explains that cheap, efficient, labor has become the cornerstone of our society with a reverse in our carbon usage to mitigate climate change, nearly impossible. 

When reflecting on this during one of our contemplative practices, I tried to imagine what my life could look like without the riches of Capitalism. Somehow, having close to nothing seemed like it would provide me with a sense of intrinsic happiness like no other. However, I would still need to have some sense of security in living which would require a foundation of wealth. Through these practices, I tried to envision societies that may not be rooted in excessive wealth but in meeting necessities. If my fundamental needs were met, I would be able to truly immerse myself in activities that would help me gain the most value out of my life.

One of Walt Whitman’s poems reads: “human bodies are words, myriads of words, in the best poems re-appears the body”. I reflected on this in another contemplative practice. I filtered memories in the past where I have felt genuinely fulfilled. I realized that these were when I created art, poems, and stories that encapsulated my ideas at the time. I thought of singers and writers whose works are remembered well beyond their passing, and it dawned upon me that I could leave a legacy of my own (admittedly, at a much smaller scale). It is possible that others may be reassured by this as well. I believe that spreading contemplative practices to the masses is a partial antidote to Capitalism; it may only be with true introspection that we as a society may begin to internalize the limit to our quest for materialistic wealth.

Death is a system

With the never-ending imploding climate disasters of our world, my desires to learn more about my connection with our environment and the not so scary concept of death are increasingly prevalent. At the beginning I was a little frightened to be talking about death but as we continue the importance is ever so increasing.

The attempts to extend our human lives leaves this catastrophic effect of disorder in our life cycles. Trickling down to disasters and death in our animals and ecosystems. As we are increasing human lifespan, they’re consequences that come with the typical American lifestyle filled with consumerism and a negligent lifestyle that carelessly increases our emissions. Climate change makes our part in this world complex. Is recycling really going to help the earth? Is using a reusable bag going to stop the earth from warming? Is what I learned in church and school going to stop wildfires? Our systems have failed us when it comes to climate change, yet we need them for our sanity and to keep our minds at bay.

Humankind blankets our self from death with symbols. Our worldwide views that we assimilate into and adopt such as religion helps us manage our terror of the inevitable end. In the worm at the core there is an example from the bible “to love our neighbor as ourselves”. However even people that adopt religion don’t follow commandments and this idea of using religion to compass our morals is just another way of navigating our systems of life. Neither less our sense of worth is determined by our self esteem that emerges from our culture views imposed by our connections to our past. Religion keeps us in check with our morals, even if not everything is followed there is some justice by making us acknowledge our connection with the earth as seen in many cultures. We discussed in class how there is a disconnect in where our food comes from depending on your culture, whereas in others its seen as normal to honor animals and see where they come from. This difference in culture is also seen when talked about death.

Our culture dictates our efforts on everything we touch, from the ground we walk on to the food we take home. The acknowledgment of death pushes us to change the life we so thought we had succeeded in. Climate change touches us on every part of the earth. Mother Earth is dying along with us, even though the fight for longevity is contradicting our ecosystems. Death is so simple, yet also complex when it comes down to human’s psychological needs.

Culture of Life vs Culture of Death

Works cited:

Is a culture of death gaining supremacy over a culture of life in today’s World? our bloggers fight it out: Flipped. ED Times | Youth Media Channel. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://edtimes.in/is-a-culture-of-death-gaining-supremacy-over-a-culture-of-life-in-todays-world-our-bloggers-fight-it-out-flipped/.

Solomon, Sheldon, et al. The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. Penguin Books, 2016

Immortality Projects in the Anthropocene

How do we cope with the knowledge that we will all die some day? In his book “The Worm at the Core,” Sheldon Solomon argues that, due to the sophistication of our neo-cortex, humans are uniquely haunted by the prospect of our own death. Solomon discusses many theories of death “terror management,” or how people cope with the looming terror of our own death. 

Many people unconsciously practice terror management in the form of immortality projects, which are ways of extending one’s legacy after death and ensuring a personal sense of meaning in our lives. Many immortality projects, such as having children or producing art, are largely benign. However, many actually work against the longevity and well-being of our species, although they may work to preserve our own personal sense of immortality. Immortality projects are commonly based on wealth or the accumulation of material goods, which is environmentally destructive. Because many of our current environmental problems come from overconsumption, it is deeply ironic and sad that many choose to extend their legacy through material means.

This drive to create immortality projects can also be harnessed for good. Humans will always need a way to cope with the idea of our own deaths. And, as the effects of climate change become more prominent for those in industrialized nations, the drive of the globally wealthy to create immortality projects will increase. 

Given this, a cultural shift away from consumerism as an immortality project in industrialized nations, and toward the enactment of positive environmental change as an immortality project may be one of humanity’s best tools in combating the climate crisis. Many in industrialized nations have extensive global influence in comparison to those in other parts of the world. If we choose to cope with our own deaths through environmental action, perhaps we can use immortality projects as a way to sustain the livelihood of our species and others, not just our own personal legacy.

Works Cited:

Solomon, Sheldon, et al. The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. Penguin Books, 2016.

ANTHROPOCENE EPOCH. Vajiram and Ravi. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://vajiramias.com/current-affairs/anthropocene-epoch/5cee5ced1d5def75e6de0fce/. 

Terror Management and Empathy

To the extent that I can accept terror management theory, I am appreciative it as an opportunity to feel more connected to other human beings. It is a comforting concept that we are all, in one or another way, reckoning with the inevitable negation of the self. I can more easily tolerate efforts people make to be “valuable participants in a meaningful universe” (Solomon et al., 39) when I choose to believe we are, at least fundamentally, up against this same reckoning. Terror management theory helped me to understand my disdain, and ultimately feel compassion for, the author of one of our readings by reminding me of our common ground: we are both trying to find meaning in the face of the Anthropocene.

Because the Anthropocene forces me to confront human caused extinction and death, it brings me to question many of my anthropocentric constructs of meaning and value. Thus, engaging the concept of “Anthropocene” represents both biological and ideological die-off. How can I be sure of my way of life when confronted with the destruction it necessitates? To tend to this profound discomfort, I gravitate toward a sense of purpose quite like the “natural transcendence” mentioned in The Worm at the Core (221). As the Anthropocene threatens my sense of belonging as a human, I find greater comfort in a sense of a more permanent “self” as a part of nature.

I was initially surprised by how angry I got while reading excerpts from Lynas’s The God Species. However, the lens of terror management theory provided a possible explanation for this anger – I see Lynas’s perspective as a threat to my “natural transcendence” worldview! Even the title poses a threat, as it suggests the omnipotence and immortality of humanity. His rhetoric about the “flaw” in natural systems (Lynas, 19) or his contention that “nature can no longer tame us” (8) represent, to me, a human-centric threat to the sense of meaning I have constructed. Faced with the same global crises, Lynas appears to have doubled down on human exceptionalism, whereas I’ve tried to refute it. I am grateful for terror management theory as a tool to expand my compassion for Lynas and others as we collectively reckon with death in the Anthropocene.

Image Source: https://www.mindful.org/are-you-really-available-for-connection/

Works Cited

Lynas, Mark. The God Species: Saving the Planet in the Age of Humans. National Geographic, 2011.

Solomon, Sheldon, et al. The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. Penguin Books, 2016.

Ponderings About My Perspective on Death

The human race seems determined to remain in denial about the limits to our existence; we set up both psychological and physical walls to preserve our mental state.

The first example of this is our collective ignorance to the dependence society has on death. This in itself is not a bad thing, animals have consumed other life forms since the beginning, the true issue is that we are largely unaware of the life that was sacrificed to feed humanity. In “Death and the Ecological Crisis” by Steven Peck this is addressed by taking a magnifying glass to how the food industry has wrapped up all of the death into neat little packages that do not nearly resemble the living beasts they came from. Another author, Avi Solomon, interviews the political scientist Timothy Pachirat in “Working Undercover in a Slaughterhouse” about how the factory itself is organized to hide and ignore the thousands of deaths. Walls, a miniature hierarchy of workers, and technical terms draw the life out of the animals sentenced to die. These two pieces of reading really opened my mind to how spoiled and separated we are from what we eat and made me question my vegetarian beliefs. Am I feeding into the ignorance of society by thinking I can avoid being involved with death by avoiding eating meat?

Another example is our dependence on religion and the hope that we may leave a mark upon the world before we go. It seems we are unsatisfied just being and have an innate desire to be remembered. While reading “The Worm at the Core” I truly realized how deeply death, and the flee from it, drives many of the institutions we depend on for a more meaningful life. I myself have always been religious as when I am feeling at my lowest it is a comfort to know that my mistakes will be forgiven and that I will be ever beloved. I will not be changing my beliefs or losing my faith, but it was interesting to consider that foundationally religion is terror management. Am I avoiding thoughts about death by convincing myself that I will live on in Heaven?

Heaven by Zac Kinkade

https://zackinkadeart.com/product/heaven-limited-edition-canvas/

The Worm at the Core

Steven Peck, “Death and the Ecological Crisis”  Download “Death and the Ecological Crisis” (pp. 105-109)

Avi Solomon, “Working Undercover in a Slaughterhouse: an interview with Timothy Pachirat”

Accepting Temporariness

Prior to reading Sheldon Solomon’s book, The Worm at the Core, I had never considered the possibility that “death is the worm at the core of the human condition”. What an intriguing, yet terrifying sentiment. Solomon claims that the fear of death “is one of the primary driving forces of human action”, an idea I initially found hard to swallow. How can this inevitable experience impact us so greatly? However, after more deeply analyzing Solomon’s claim throughout my reading of The Worm at the Core, this idea rings true in my ears. Humans possess an awareness and fear of death that is unique from any other species. As a result of this ever-present knowledge of mortality, humans have come up with a multitude of ways to manage these thoughts, often dubbed ‘terror management strategies.’

To manage the ‘terror’ that comes with the knowledge of inevitable death, humans often cling tightly to cultural worldviews. In fact, Solomon and his colleagues conducted a study which found that judges would grant more punitive sentences to prostitutes after being reminded of their mortality. To me, this provides great insight into why many humans politicize and question “Anthropocene problems”, such as climate change. Many people find meaning in supporting a cause that is larger than themselves, while others would rather not accept our detrimental impact on the earth as it may force them to change their current behavior, thereby shattering their current world view.

While dismissing climate change may be effective in limiting terror, it is not effective in mitigating the crises caused by the Anthropocene. Rather, I believe that coming to terms with our fragile existence may motivate us to heal the earth for future generations. As I have been participating in recent contemplative practices, I have been reflecting on my fragile yet remarkable existence. How incredible is it to be a human standing at the threshold of the Anthropocene? A time where I can comprehend the temporariness of my existence, while simultaneously understanding the permanent impact our species can have. Steven Peck proposes that we “situate (ourselves) deeply within the cycle of life and death. (And remember that) Life matters. Death matters. Both rely on one another”, an idea that I think would greatly benefit humans living in the Anthropocene. While our existence is shaky, our impact on the earth does not have to be. We can embrace our temporariness and help reshape the earth we walk on.

Mads Perch/Getty Images

 

Works Cited

Solomon, Sheldon, et al. The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life. Penguin Books, 2016.

Peck, Steven L. “Death and the Ecological Crisis.” Agriculture and Human Values, vol. 27, no. 1, 2009, pp. 105–109., https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-008-9189-y.

Welcome to our course blog!

We are a learning community asking big questions. Because life feeds on life, death is indispensable to the healthy functioning of ecosystems and even evolution itself. One species, however, has developed the capacity to anticipate (and therefore dread) death and commandeer other species in service to increasing its numbers and its material consumption. Humanity is now operating well outside the planetary boundaries that characterized the Holocene, the interglacial “sweet spot” during which civilization emerged. The implications are profound: not only are we facing the end of “nature” as something separate from human culture, we also face the potential death of civilization as we know it.

Image source: Ligorano Reese, Melted Away

We therefore ask ourselves: what are the political and ecological consequences of how individuals and societies approach death? And what can the current pandemic teach us about the political ecology of death? While death is a fact of life, questions of who lives, who dies, who decides, and with what consequences are also political ones. Our discussion is therefore informed by themes of justice, equity, power and authority, and political agency. At the same time, because mortality is also an intensely personal reality, we are deepening our self-inquiry through poetry, videos, contemplative practices, and personal exploration.

As we stand at the threshold of the Anthropocene, we hope our inquiry helps to inspire your own inquiry!