Deathism is the family //replace with "underlying theme in many" - it's not the family of these ideas, it's just one thread in them// of philosophies, psychologies, attitudes, positions, opinions, and viewpoints that death (the cessation of physical living) is both desireable and good, and that all attempts to "unnaturally" change, alter, delay, or prevent it is undesireable and bad. Deathist views are strongly or tenatively held not only by many Goths, Satanists, and Dark Pagans, but also by nearly all Christians, Muslims, New Agers, atheists, agnostics, Wiccans, indeed, some claim - nearly everybody.
The term has been first proposed by ...
The opposite of deathism is immortalism, the rejection of death as a positive phenomenon.
The main people who do not hold deathist views (and of course the ones who have coined the term) are the immortalists, particularly the biological immortalists and transhumanists, but also perhaps the Setian (ToS) Satanists, some Technopagans, and others. These people wish to work against death (nothingness; nonexistence; nonsurvival) and all that it stands for, such as "merging with the whole" (Nature/Universe/God), surrendering to the Other (God, etc.), and other ways of losing your conscious identity, autonomy, and sovereignty. Antideathism is definitely a Left-Hand Path philosophy, while deathism is usually very Right-Hand Path (even most modern neo-paganism that promotes altruism and nature-worship over egoism, immortalism, and the Self).
Deathism traditional: for such a person death of old age is desirable. Rebelious deathism: a desire to take everything of life and to die young.
In the modern context the deathism idea is related to hubris, since people who rebel against death are punished in many stories - from ancient myths (see Tithonus) to modern Hollywood films.
Saul Kent in his interview said that there are five categories of people: "hard-core deathists, soft-core deathists, closed immortalists, soft-core immortalists and hard-core immortalists."[1]
Deathism in culture
edit- The Greek myth about Tithonus - Tithonus wishes for immortality, but is punished by decrepitude
- The Greek myth about Icarus - the son of Daedalus, commonly known for his attempt to escape Crete by flight, which ended in a fall to his death.
... ... ...
- Frankenstein - a novel written by Mary Shelley. Dr Frankenstein creates a monster. At the end of the novel they kill each other.
... ... ...
- The Fountain - Tommy rebels against death, fails and is punished
- Star Wars: Episode 3 - Anakin rebels against death, becomes evil and is punished
- Charlie angels Full Throttle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCXaFD3eJFM
- [1] Exploring life extension (pt.4) "deathism"
- [2] Steve Jobs says death is good
- Pro-aging_trance Pro-aging trance is a related idea proposed by biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey
http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/deconstructing-deathism/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ4iIsCda2E exploring life extension part 4 deathism
[[Category:Death]] [[Category:Worldview]]