Never has the reminder of death been so omnipresent as it has been for my generation with the coronavirus pandemic. Death rates are recurrent in headlines and conversations, and losing loved ones has become a personal experience for millions more people around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the pandemic has also highlighted the strong hold that the denial of death has on American culture, as we attempt to not contemplate death any more than is absolutely necessary. The terror management theory, proposed by Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski, explains how death, being the inevitable ending that we all strive to avoid, presents a psychological conflict in our minds that drives our actions.

As discussed in The Worm at the Core, one of the coping mechanisms that humans have relied upon to deal with our mortality comes through building a perception of ourselves as being superior to all others on the planet. This contributes to our actions being more inherently selfish and driven by the desire to get ourselves more than what we need. This is in contrast to animals who only consume for sustenance. The Anthropocene film explores some of the ecological harms that have come from re-engineering the planet to fit the desires of the wealthy, with little regard for other humans and living things. 

I believe that terror management theory helps us in the sense that it identifies why people turn to ways of creating or strengthening value in their lives, and how death anxiety can manifest itself through destructive tendencies. Identifying a root cause is essential for coming up with solutions. For example, in “Is a Fear of Death at the Heart of Capitalism?”, James Rowe proposes an increased focus on meditation and spirituality. 

With that being said, I don’t think that terror management theory is the most effective tool to address human’s harmful actions toward each other and the planet. Although it may be a crucial underlying factor, I believe that dismantling our capitalist systems is the most important step to reducing harms in the anthropocene. Economic factors play much more immediate roles in people’s lives. Once people feel more economically stable, they will then be able to prioritize meditative and spiritual practices. 

K, Manikanta. “Earth Day - Human Greed and Solution.” Medium, Medium, 14 May 2021, https://maniybm.medium.com/earth-day-human-greed-and-solution-b313b84c05f0.

Our self-awareness and developed consciousnesses have provided us with a plethora of benefits,  but our constant awareness of death has left us in a  permanent state of terror. As stated in The Worm at the Core, “only we humans, due to our enlarged and sophisticated neo-cortex, can experience this terror in the absence of looming danger”. This fundamental state of anticipation leaves our species perpetually in a state of terror. 

In a constant search to find meaning in the seemingly bleak circumstances of the cosmos, humans have established multiple methods to try to and defeat this monster. To manage this terror, humans “sustain faith in our cultural worldview, which imbues our sense of reality with order, meaning, and permanence”. There is a constant search for a value system that supersedes death; humans cling on to their religions, political views, and educational perspectives. These systems of belief may be the reason why individuals seem to be so polarized in their political views as they stand their ground on “being right”. For example, take the politicization of climate change. Some groups derive meaning in their lives out of “fighting for something greater”, whereas other groups may deny the existence of our effect on the earth in order to justify their current behaviors and quests for capital. 

An additional way that humans manage this looming terror is by finding ways to remain immortal. The “path to literal and symbolic immortality laid out by our world-views require us to feel we are valuable members of our cultures”. Extremist political acts or quests for power seem to be the result of this framework of thinking. The argument can be made that our entire capitalistic system runs on this strategy for terror management. In Escape from Evil, Becker claims “power means power to increase oneself, to change one’s natural situation from one of smallness, helplessness, finitude, to one of bigness, control, durability, importance”. We’ve established an environment where the means to achieve this power and change in status is through wealth accumulation. The greed to achieve this faster has led us to exploit the resources around us in a quest to separate ourselves from the animal kingdom. 

There are ways to manage this terror in the Anthropocene without permanently destructing our environment. For example, we can incentivize and educate individuals to work on their symbolic selves as opposed to physical selves through positive immortality projects. 

A constant theme throughout human existence is that of death. As yet we have no technology which can truly prevent death, we can do naught but stave off this inevitable end. While fearing or considering this inevitability may avail us little, many spend much of their lives wondering what will remain of them when they die. For many individuals, the awareness of the inevitability of their death guides their actions throughout their lives.

As discussed in The Worm at the Core, humans are rather unique in their self-awareness and ability to consider temporally disconnected events. While there are many truly wonderful outcomes to these abilities, they have also inspired terror and superstition in many. If one disconnects from their current position and considers larger periods of time, a certain theme becomes evident. They are almost certain to die within the equivalent of a blink of an eye, in only a few billion years a supernova will occur in our local star system and consume the Earth, eventually followed by the universe eventually achieving a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, rendering life as we know it all but impossible. As such, death may seem omnipresent, the only surety in our lives.

This awareness of death is identified in The Worm at the Core as the downside of human intelligent, for the natural response to an imminent or perceived death is that of terror. It is hardly a surprise then, that some among us find themselves consumed by terror in the face of such omnipresent death, and as such seek a means to escape this terror. For some, this is found in superstition postulating continued existence after death, for others it is found in a more symbolic immortality through contribution to a society or culture we believe will substantially outlive us. While we as individuals typically have a limited ability to influence history, we can still contribute to a culture or society, and while we may not be remembered, the work we contributed may survive.

This pursuit of symbolic immortality as a means to leave something of ourselves in the world after we die has proven an intriguing idea which I have linked to many fascinating occurrences in history. Such an awareness has helped me to understand occurrences throughout history, from Bismarck’s devotion to the creation of a unified Germany in the face of an existential cultural threat to the same acting as the cause of the Peloponnesian War.

References:
Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., & Pyszczynski, T. A. (2015). The worm at the core: On the role of death in life.

The The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Starting in-person courses again at the University of Washington after a year of Zoom has proved to be an unfamiliar and interesting time. Not knowing what we as students were getting ourselves into is what made me most drawn to this course. I was most intrigued by the title because quite frankly I was unaware of what exactly “the Political Ecology of Death” referred to. Especially after a period of time in which we all were going through loss, instability, and misdirection, I decided to register for this course. I believe that not enough of us coherently think about our political decisions as a matter of life or death. It is interesting to see how strangers who are just meeting for the first time deal with the fear of and acceptance of dying. 

To grasp the fact that we inevitably will all die unbeknownst of our actions, weighed on me as I begin exploring the concepts of this course. Although the topics we have discussed these first few weeks resonate with my personal life, all I have been coming back to is our lack of awareness for organisms other than ourselves. As we get sucked into the day-to-day routine of life, it’s easy to justify the “small things”. This could simply mean, taking an extra-long shower or grabbing your favorite take-out in its styrofoam container. Our mentality towards living has now led to the destruction of our environment. So far, this course has shown me that rather than fearing death, collectively we all should bear the responsibility of trying to understand and accept living while dying. 

As a political science major, environmental law has always been one of my areas of focus. I believe this course will be a great bridge to the other courses I have taken throughout University. What has stood out to me the most since beginning this course, is our focus on contemplative practice. Taking the time to check-in with yourself and how you are feeling has always been something that I value. This is the first course where I have encountered a Professor who has carved out a specific time for students to do this. This being my first blog post of the quarter, I am excited to see how much growth and awareness I gain as we navigate living within the Anthropocene.

James, Frances. “Strengthening Climate Change Literacy to Combat the Climate Crisis.” QS, Publisher Name QS Quacquarelli Symonds Publisher Logo, 8 Dec. 2020, https://www.qs.com/strengthening-climate-change-literacy-to-combat-the-climate-crisis/.

Coming from a STEM focused educational background, I found some of the material this week difficult to grapple with, as it existed outside my usual academic perspective. In my biology classes, we often discuss why death occurs and its evolutionary benefits. However, we tend to neglect the thoughts, emotions, and fears that surround it. I look forward to supplementing my previous knowledge about death with this class material, as it will give me a more comprehensive understanding of the evolutionary purpose and full meaning of death. 

This week, the concept of entropy within the anthropocene resonated with me. It was interesting to view the term entropy through an interdisciplinary lens, as it allowed me to understand our dire climate situation. As discussed in “The other side of the global crisis: entropy and the collapse of civilizations,” the chaos in our world continues to grow and we have reached our capacity to constrain it. In my mind, I was able to picture entropy in the chemical sense: with molecules of liquid evaporating to become a more chaotic gas. This example allowed me to view our world in that same manner. With increased use of fossil fuels and pollutants, our world has begun to fracture. The stratosphere has thinned, more pollutants are released into the air, and climate refugees are forced to flee their homes. Just like evaporating water molecules, our world becomes more chaotic. 

While the idea of entropy in the anthropocene resonated with me, I did struggle with other topics. One was the emphasis placed on inner work when addressing the socio-ecological model. In my public health courses, we have spent hours analyzing the socio-ecological model and applying it to health issues in order to devise solutions. In those discussions, we have recognized the importance of individual beliefs, but ultimately that is not what leads to change. Generally, the top layers of that model are able to create the most change, and individual work lies at the bottom. Placing too much pressure on an individual to modify their thoughts can also imply that they are responsible for the world’s problems, which can lead to burnout if they attempt to change their actions and are met with no results. While inner work is important, these climate issues require more systemic solutions through policies. We cannot force inner work upon the people in charge, so it was hard for me to see inner work as the solution to these issues. 

The Socio-Ecological Model
Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-buffalo-environmentalhealth/part/chapter-3/