I'm sure that no matter what your religious beliefs are, you accept death as inevitable. Humans have proven that they can gleefully ignore the world they new metaphorically going up in flames. When you hear that 12 soldiers died today in some far-off country on the news, you most likely say something like "That's terrible." and brush it off.
However, when someone is referred to in human terms "A U.S. soldier with a wife and two daughters, 28 years old, would have come home next month." something deep inside you feels upset. Someone in your immediate family has died, you may spend years in mourning. It all boils down to this:
The more you know about someone the more valuable they are.
The thought that so many wonderful traits have disappeared, that the community has lost so much, makes you feel sick. I have determined that this is a biological impulse that would cause you to want to defend the community, so that it can thrive.
I seem to lack this. I never dwell on a death for more than a few minutes. Even when my beloved uncle died around a month ago, I didn't let it interrupt my fun. My respect goes to the dead, but not my happiness. I suppose that after spending the last few years contemplating death, that I have rendered myself immune to the death around me, as I have acknowledged that pretty much everyone I care about is going to die before me.
Does anyone else feel this way? Do you have any particular theories on the effect of death on the living?
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Topic: On the Nature of Death (Read 4360 times)