The Fear Of Death Is Rational: Why The Will To Live And Death Anxiety Go Hand In Hand.
Many philosophers have argued about the irrationality of death, contending the mere pointlessness of fearing the inevitable. Despite this many people still fear death, finding they are unable to cope with the thoughts of the cessation of the self. Why is it so hard to accept the inevitable? Because it’s rational.
Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely. After all, every murderer when he kills runs the risk of the most dreadful of deaths, whereas those who kill him risk nothing except promotion. — Albert Camus
Why do we care if we live or die? You may say you don’t but most likely you do. If you really didn’t care if you died you most likely would already be dead. The will to survive is one of the strongest drives that humans possess. There are many stories of people doing amazing things just to survive. Aaron Ralston famously cut off his arm with a dull blade going through excruciating pain just to have a chance to survive. Why put in that effort? Why not just kneel over and give up, especially with the many struggles that life throws at us. Many argue suicide as a contention against this argument and they would be right… sort of.
9 million people say they are suicidal in the US every year yet only 48,000 kill themselves (0.05%) Why? Many say “I don’t want to die, I just don’t want to be here” I am making the contention that we, even those of us who are most miserable, are afraid of death. David Foster Wallace famously captures being suicidal as “The person in whom its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise” That something must be so terrible that it finally makes you overcome the will to live, otherwise you wish to stay. I know there are ton’s of people who say: “I really don’t care about dying” However, I am going to make the argument that ALMOST all of them actually do care because the fear of death is not within your control, it is in the control of the subconscious and the basic building blocks that make up your conscious being. Why would you fear death if you thought about it rationally?
Indeed, many of the greatest philosophers have emphasized similar statements. Many point out the pure irrationality of fearing your own death, “why would you fear the inevitable”. The famous philosopher Epicuris argued that “while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist.” as an argument for the irrationality of death anxiety. However, Epicuris also has said “we are our bodies, nothing more” which in my mind is a major contradiction. The human brain is not adapted for cosmic rationality but rather rationality to meet drives to help us survive and reproduce. In this way accepting death is not a rational expectation, similar to how not eating through conscious effort is not rational. Many philosophers and psychologists use “radical acceptance” as a way to rationalize death and to cease fear of it. However, radical acceptance works only as much as the conscious brain is able to suppress (which I talk about later) the unconscious.
The subconscious has been know by psychologists (and now even neuroscientists by showing how the limbic system modulates control over the PFC) for decades to be able to have a significant influence over emotions and behavior. Death anxiety is as common as hunger, thirst, and the drive to reproduce. With biological drives we use behaviors to alleviate the unpleasant sensation brought by that drive. Time and time again it has been shown that subconscious drives override higher processing in the brain. For example, if you were face to face with a lion or someone pointed a gun at you, you would probably feel death anxiety. Humans through evolution have an innate desire to stay alive but as a biproduct of our increased intelligence and future planning skills due to our brain we are more cognizant of our eventual death. The brain uses the things I listed below to avoid that anxiety. I will also make the argument that humans use five and only five psychological mechanisms to avoid death anxiety.
- Suppression
To me this is the most common one, especially among those of you who are not religious. Many atheists/agnostics/non-religious struggle with how to accept death and many end up coming to the conclusion that “whatever, it happens anyway” or “I don’t really care, and its pointless to care”. When people say they “don’t care” I personally believe that means they do not think about it. In order to avoid the fear of death, especially when the psyche has accepted that mortality is inevitable by not beliving in an afterlife, the brain simply suppresses the thoughts of its possibility.
The brain will not think about death at all, and if brought up will quickly find ways to shove those thoughts out of its head to avoid the debilitating anxiety that will follow. Often the brain does this through rationalization, such as “There is no way I die driving this car, I have done it thousands of times before, the probability is very low” or “No way I die on this rollercoaster, no one dies on rollercoasters, they are incredibly safe”. The brain can even use philosophical rationalization such as “Death is inevitable, it’s pointless to ponder it” The thought of death is extinguished and the anxiety relieved.
2. Denial
The human brain is also adapt to not only rationalize and push away the thoughts of the cessation of the self but actually straight up deny them. Often the brain will just reject that it is even a possibility in the first place. A common one is found in youth, with many young people stating “I am way too young, there is no way I can die”. A perfect example is how young people are much more prone to danger. Young people see their youth as a barrier to death even though as we know that is a pretty stupid idea. Denial of the possibility of death ever happening allows for control of knowing you will be ok. Even a little bit of self doubt of our future health can lead to the emergence of death anxiety so the psyche must turn to denial.
3. Religion and the belief in immortality
While denial may be a short term solution to the problem of death anxiety it does not last long. The human brain’s vast intelligence and significant ability to predict future situations makes it difficult for us to not eventually ponder death and the death anxiety that comes along with it. Often this can occur at night when mortal anxiety is at its highest for many people. The solution to avoiding this debilitating fear is through one of man’s biggest inventions: religion and the afterlife.
Nearly 80+% of Americans describe themselves as religious with one of its biggest draws being the idea of the afterlife. The invention of religion and any other immortality (reincarnation, etc.) provides the psyche with the relief of knowing that cessation of the self will never truly end and keeps death anxiety at bay. It is not a coincidence that many of the most significant times of preying and “turning to god” resolves around death.
4. Ego
While religion may act as a place to believe in an actual afterlife, the ego provides us the ability to live on in spirit. Many people obsess over being remembered “after they are gone”, with a famous expression being: “you die two deaths, one when you die, the other when the last person to remember you dies”. The ego drives behavior and is really the thing that is threatened by the fear of death. The extinction of the self is the extinction of the ego, so many find the need to search for something that last after they are gone. This can be through making a big difference in the world, getting famous, having a building named after them, and many other ways. The preservation of the ego provides a somewhat different kind of immortality than those postulated by religion, a philosophical immortality if you will.
5. Escapism/Distraction
The world is saturated with escapism and I would argue a large part of that is due to death anxiety. Many people who struggle with the encroaching fear of eventual mortality find solace in escaping into simple pleasures. Some may turn to illicit drugs, junk food, sports, sitcoms, or alcohol to try to avoid the fear. Existential dread can permeate through the psyche so the brain looks for quick ways to alleviate it which can allow us to feel ok due to the distraction it provides. The distraction does not only need to be in pleasure either but can also be through compulsory work. obsessive planning for the future, following news stories, or even arguing with people online.