vanlose kid » Thu Aug 08, 2013 8:09 pm wrote:@ bph:
Having viewed "The American Ruling Class" it seems to me that the main protagonists, Lapham's alters so to speak, both expressions of their broad cultural milieu, exemplify quite well what "Mortality salience within the context of The Empire" looks like. And it has very little to do with cleaving to god and country.
I was taking that idea from the excerpt of the paper I posted on the first page at this link:
http://cmsauthor.skidmore.edu/fye/summe ... mption.pdf In summary, terror management theory posits that the juxtaposition of
the basic biological inclination toward self-preservation common to all living
things with the uniquely human awareness of death creates the potential
for overwhelming terror that is ameliorated through the construction and
maintenance of culture. Culture provides a sense that we live in a stable,
orderly, and meaningful universe, and it confers self-esteem through the provision
of social roles with associated standards of conduct that allow individuals
to view themselves as persons of enduring value in a world of
meaning. Consequently, people's actions are directed toward sustaining a dual
component cultural anxiety-buffer: faith in their worldviews and a sense that
they are valued components of that meaningful reality.
I think its kind of uncontroversial though and the authors support their view with a number of studies:
Second, if a cultural worldview and self-esteem protect people specifically
from death-related concerns, then reminders of mortality should lead to
the bolstering of these psychological constructs. In support of this general
hypothesis, a large body of evidence has shown that momentarily making
death salient (mortality salience), typically by asking people to think about
themselves dying, intensifies people's strivings both to protect and fortify
aspects of their worldviews and to bolster their self-esteem. The first and most
common finding has been that mortality salience increases positive reactions
to similar others or those who share cherished aspects of one's cultural worldview
and negative reactions toward those who violate cherished cultural values
or are merely different. For example, Greenberg et al. (1990; Study 1) had
Christian participants think about death or watch television and then rate
two targets who were similarly portrayed except for being either Christian or
Jewish. As predicted, although there was no difference between participants'
evaluations of the targets in the control condition, mortality salience participants
had more favorable reactions to the Christian target and less favorable
reactions to the Jewish target. In Study 3, following a mortality salience or
control induction, American participants read short essays either highly supportive
or highly critical of the American way of life and then reported their
impressions of the author. Not surprisingly, participants favored the pro-
American author over the anti-American author in the control condition;
but this tendency was exaggerated following mortality salience.
One expression of the fear of death is the scientific search for the prolongation of life and personal pleasure by any means necessary. This is in no way religious or patriotic.
I didn't mean to suggest that the only response people have to mortality salience is a retreat to their religious or patriotic beliefs. But within the context of the empire and the possibility that there are those within the military/industrial/entertainment complex with unscrupulous goals who might be interested in the effects of mortality salience/anxiety I was suggesting religiosity and patriotism would be desirably reinforced. Just speculation.
Nor does it seem to be an expression of joie de vivre.
Hedonsim is very definitely an expression of the love of life, though the "any means necessary" complicates things, since it's not the only expression of the
human love of life.
To be mortal and tragically short lived is human. I agree that one of the expressions of the denial of death is the search for the prolongation of life but if the transhuman ubermensch is not longer lived at least then I'd say it was a failure.
I'm finding this difficult to express. What I want to get across is that Critchley's dichotomy: "Led, on the one hand, to deny the fact of death and to run headlong into the watery pleasures of forgetfulness, intoxication and the mindless accumulation of money and possessions. On the other hand, the terror of annihilation leads us blindly into a belief in the magical forms of salvation and promises of immortality offered by certain varieties of traditional religion and many New Age (and some rather old age) sophistries."which Lapham (and you?) subscribes to is false. And that their "way out" if one can call it that isn't as clean cut as it is made to seem. For instance, the acceptance of death may just as well lead one to "run headlong into the watery pleasures of forgetfulness, intoxication and the mindless accumulation of money and possessions" as the denial of it.
It may. I believe you are right. But what does the fear and denial of death
actually produce in a large part of the populace of the empire? After 9/11 we were encouraged to "go shopping", flags appeared everywhere, and I imagine the coffers of the churches got a 9/11 bounce.
There is no internal relation between denial of death and hedonism, or religion for that matter.
Internal? You mean some sort of abstraction?
Who says that belief in the after-life necessarily quells the fear of death?
Necessarily? Not I. You seem to be creating a strawman of universals.
And who says that facing death and drawing the breath of life from it necessarily entails that one does not become religious?
When Critchley writes, "the terror of annihilation leads us blindly into a belief in the magical forms of salvation and promises of immortality offered by certain varieties of traditional religion and many New Age (and some rather old age) sophistries." I don't think he means to further say by implication that facing death rather than denying it can only lead to non-religiosity.
There is just so much wrong with the OP, so much shoddy thinking, although it is very well-groomed and clever, admittedly, that it leaves one wanting. It leaves one with the same feeling his mockumentary did. Cynically blasé fun and games for the post-ironic.
I'll have to reread the OP in light of your criticisms. I am happy to have my idols and role models deconstructed.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King Jr.
