Why do people have such a fasination with death and its many componets?

[ledbassest]

People have always had a fixation with death. We have always tried to escape death, and fail still. Something else that bothers me is that if one kills an animal it can be justified alot easier than if one was to kill an human. We protect ourselves regardless of what the overall out come will be, or how many others (including plants and animals)it kills.

I am not an activist, just wonder who we can kill animals but not humans. When an animal is to die, we kill it; but when a human is to die, we allow for them to survive. Why? I am not saying that we should kill all humans that are sick, just those that are terminally ill and wish for death. Nor am I saying that we should kill those that wish to die.

Now I wish for you all to put in your beliefs and your own thoughts (not based off religion).

[orbsycli]

not that i agree with this or anything, but as a whole- us humans think we are so significant. SO SIGNIFICANT. a lot of people can't even accept that we are animals, let alone the insignificance of us alone.

[ledbassest]

I do agree with you that this race of ours is obsessed with itself. It sickens me. But we have become acustomed to sheltering one generation to another. Why? I can see this to a point, but we have got rediculous with it. And with America we are more obsessed with our "own" dying than that of another countries. Again Why?

[orbsycli]

maybe this originates from survival, mixed with selfishness. i don't know. i only know what i observe.

And with America we are more obsessed with our "own" dying than that of another countries.

use this as an analogy and you will see people just don't want to get involved. they tell themselves not to look, and they just keep walking. what ever happened to living in the moment? i guess it's just a rare virtue that's easier said than done.

[UncleAl]

When an animal is to die, we kill it; but when a human is to die, we allow for them to survive. Why?

Money. If you are old and enfeebled you are a malpractice-proof training bench for new MDs and nurses. Your health insurance is an undammed river of cash with few questions asked. The moment your health insurance fails you will be allowed to die. The indigent are State-paid. Free ride! Nobody even keeps track of the payments. The only people without access to unlimited healthcare are those who work for a living and won't pay bribes.

Power. What remains for God to handle? Science has remade the world. Anybody with the will to do so need not be poor, sick, and hurting. Babies no longer die by the bushel. An infected scratch needs a shot of antibiotic not prayer and donations. Remove the mysteries of sacredness of death ane every church and every god are reduced to impotent bad jokes. Religion is about threats, intimidation, extortion... evil made flesh.

Death is the prerogative of the State and the Church. Death on a massive scale - tens of thousands killed with hardly an afterthought - is trivially arranged and enthusiastically blessed by both sides in any war. If you want millions killed some minor civilian consenus is generally required. OTOH, a standard nuclear device detonated over Cairo, Egypt would kill about 10 million. Poof.

One death is a tragedy. One million dead is a statistic. Go for the big kill if you wish to be forgiven. Pope Pius XII enthusiastically supported Adolf Hitler doing God's work killing Jews. Come to think of it, new Pope Benny-16 was Hitler Youth. How's that for forgiveness?

[orbsycli]

very very nice post.

[pgrmdave]

I find nothing wrong with giving humans more consideration than any other animal because we must look to our own survival first. I understand that this can be taken too far, but I think that we look to provide for the safty of the smallest groups that we belong to first:
self
family
friends
community
country
race
species
life

I think that it is part of our survival instinct, and there is nothing wrong with it. As for our numbness to numbers of people killed, I think that it is a necessary defense mechanism. If we were to feel the same emotion for millions that we do for one of our friends, or neighbors, or leaders, then we would not be able to function as a society, or as individuals. And nobody has shown what is wrong about death. Would you abolish death? Would you have all children born live until they die of old age? Do you really think that a world like that would be desirable? What about the stain on food sources, on medicine, on government and law enforcement, on wages, on housing? Death may not be desired for us as individuals, but it is a necessary force to continue on as a species.

Originally Posted by UncleAl

Money. If you are old and enfeebled you are a malpractice-proof training bench for new MDs and nurses. Your health insurance is an undammed river of cash with few questions asked. The moment your health insurance fails you will be allowed to die. The indigent are State-paid. Free ride! Nobody even keeps track of the payments. The only people without access to unlimited healthcare are those who work for a living and won't pay bribes.

Is there something wrong with doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and all the other health care professionals needing to be paid? Would you have them all work for free, and simply not pay their bills? The schools that they repay need that money to continue training doctors, so that you and I have a knowledgable professional taking care of us. It is a sad fact that there are people with no way to pay for health care, but it is not feasible to provide good health care to every person. Consider how many people would not be paid if we tried. The obvious ones - doctors, nurses, janitors at the hospitals, administrators. The drug companies, and all the people who work there. The pharmacists. The manufacturers of needles, bandages, robotics, and all other medical supplies. The people who transport medical supplies. The researchers. The construction workers who build the buildings. The people who transport the building materials. The people who mine/harvest/create the building materials. Everybody that all these people would normally buy things from.

I think that you may have simplified the situation too much, attributing all of death to a few things. Maybe it is more complicated than you think, and maybe you haven't thought through your ideas to their logical extreme.

[Fluffy]

You have to remember that health care may not be so expensive if it were not for the millions of dollars that healthcare providers much pay for liability insurance because America has become a sue-happy country. Also, with the drug companies spending millions upon millions on advertising implies that they get paid WAY too much for their services. The more they advertise the more your grandparents or whatever are going to have to pay for their blood pressure medcine. The representatives that get the doctors to sell their drugs make more money than the people who are trying to develop new drugs or to make sure that the drugs that we already have are safe in the long term.


I, personally, think that we, as the human race, are obsessed with death is because we have the capacity to wonder if there is a life after death and then obsess over whether or not we've lived "a good life." Whether the culture celebrates death or mourns it there's a hope that there will be an afterlife that is better than the life that we have here on earth. Animals are seen as beings who do not have the capacity for right and wrong so they will inherently go to "doggie heaven" (or so I was told growing up) so maybe that's why we are less hesitant to "let them go." People are always reluctant to let go of the things that they love whether it be an old blanket, their cat, or their parent. I hope that when it's my time to go they'll just let me go and not try to keep me "alive."