Is there a pride involved in outliving someone? There was a rather 'posh' gathering lately and the people who had gathered were trying to remember their 'lost', 'fallen' comrades. It was a sad atmosphere but I couldn't help notice the pride they had in outliving their fallen comrades. This is rather a nasty observation but they do say Vanity is the greatest sin of all.
Let me get straight to the point. The old Darwinian Evolutionary Theory focused on the basic principle, "The survival of the fittest". This principle has rather many paradigms to it. The new dimension in our current living world is related to Power. Does outliving someone, part of a power struggle? Does this power masquerade under the sadness that we show to the news of the demise of a colleague or a friend? "You are still alive means" many things. Getting to say that you survived an accident where the many people with you died shows the real pride in outliving them? Maybe this pride is also part of our imagination. It happens because we picture ourselves in the dead situation.
We are at a point in time when we are faced with the doom of our existence. We are at a point in time when the human species is hunting for a 'hack' in death for in a future we could all be 'immortal'. A fight for better longevity, better life span is exactly a fight to demolish this concept of power related to life. I seriously believe in a future where it is a human right to live immortally. Think about this, 'the right to immortality.'
A digression to the future where we all would be equal before life was necessary. To outlive someone means you are powerful than that someone. This basic principle is fueling our 'post-human', 'futuristic', 'anthropocentric' narratives. I used 'anthropocentric' intentionally because the human species only caves when it comes to matters related to 'other species' vs 'our species'. This is similar to the situation we have here. Let the nature be destroyed, let mother earth burn; you know what, it doesn't matter. What matters is that we survive. This idea is there in the back of our technological advancements but rather this whole idea meanwhile destroys the concept of 'pride in life' that I brought here
Now, the concept of death and its effect and affect is pretty clear. To have that extra day that your friend didn't get is a privilege, to live it is satisfaction and to remember the deceased from this vantage point is pure power. To remember them, as if their absence is mourned with your presence is the power that humans are trying to masquerade in their sadness. Pretty hypocritical, right?
I would hate to end this piece without mentioning Capitalism. Capitalism is everywhere around us. It is making us fear death and making us believe in this age old concept of power in outliving someone. We, capitalists have a way of seeing life. In my viewpoint, Carpe Diem is the most worshiped capitalist notion I've ever heard. It is a one liner advertisement to any product that is out there in the market. "To make the most out of your day", always ends up with you buying unwanted shit. This ideal is also the driving force behind pride/power in life. Apparently, Carpe Diem is practiced in a rather wrong way.
To conclude, we hate death because in reality we hate our friends and colleagues remembering us while we are rotting in some casket in a shitty graveyard. Their power to speak of us when we can't makes death all the more unwelcome. Death itself is not death for the human species. It is something else entirely. It is not a surprise to see this big picture. It is not a surprise because we are 'human'!
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