- Sep 23, 2006
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Tibetans try to see death for what it is. It is the end of attachment to things. This simple truth is hard to fathom. But once we stop denying death, we can proceed calmly to die and then go on to experience uterine rebirth or Judeo-Christian afterlife or out-of-body-experience or a trip on a UFO or whatever we wish to call it. We can do so with a clear vision, without awe or terror. We don't have to cling to life artificially, or death for that matter. Waves and radiation. Look how well-lighted everything is. The place is sealed off, self-contained. It is timeless. Another reason why I think of Tibet. Dying is an art in Tibet. A priset walks in, sits down, tell the weeping relatives to get out and has the room sealed. Doors, windows sealed. He has serious business to see to. Chants, numerology, horoscopes, recitations. Here we don't die, we shop. But the difference is less marked than you think.
--Don DeLillo White Noise
I've always loved this passage because, despite its deliberate absurdity, it describes the way our society really works. We have built a culture defined by its veneration of the supreme worth of the individual human being: its institutions, its corpus of myth, its art - all exist to exalt the Sovereign "I." Death then becomes the great enemy, because Death makes "I" meaningless. A more realistic culture would re-evaluate its position in the face of this truth (most ancient cultures evolved an epic tradition for this reason - to reconcile man to the reality of death), but our society has far too much invested (often quite literally) in the sacred individual. So, instead, we engage in the Dance of Death Denied hoping that if we buy the right plastic shit, worship the properly complected Jesus and vote for the right politicians, somehow, the reality of Death will be dissipated.
The problem is that not everyone is dumb enough or deluded enough to buy into this crap. Inevitably, there are people that see the truth for what it is. Some are broken by it - they take themselves out with pills or heroin or just put a bullet in their brains. Some become enraged and shoot up their high schools or hijack airliners and fly them into icons of world commerce or mail package bombs to biotech profiteers. These people are dangerous to society, but only in a very limited sense. They are easily marginalized - they're 'fascists' who 'hate freedom.'
Some, however, choose a different course. Rather than burning out or blowing up, they speak up. Artists. Philosophers. Leaders. These are infinitely more dangerous to the social order, because they tell the truth when others regurgitate the lie, and truth, given substance by the weight of reality, becomes rather hard to ignore once the taboo against speaking it is broken. Like the beached whale at the seaside resort (reality intrudes upon purchased fantasy), the longer it is ignored, the harder it becomes to ignore it. Eventually, you're going to have to admit that something smells.
As a result, our society has a built in incentive to marginalize the truth tellers. From the perspective of the Death Deniers, it is imperative that Slayer be meaningless - if they aren't, then Death is indeed real, and, oh by the way, this society is totally fucked. So, first they turn to mockery:
"Ha ha! It's just dorks singing about Satan!"
"Ha ha! Deathklok!"
When mockery proves insufficient, appropriation must suffice. If Burzum or Mordid Angel or Nietzsche or Wagner or Dawn of the Dead cannot be mocked into silence, then the market must puke out something that apes the form but removes the truth-telling inner spirit, replacing it with something meaningless that can be mocked. Thus, we end up with Cradle of Filth, Cannibal Corpse, Jaques Derrida, shitty film scores and Dawn of the Dead.
It's all rather disheartening on the surface, but if you give it a deeper look, hope blossoms in the darkness: the Death Deniers are impotent. They cannot silence truth, nor can they make reality go away. All they can do is mock and copy, and, in the end, they are doomed to that they fear most.
--Don DeLillo White Noise
I've always loved this passage because, despite its deliberate absurdity, it describes the way our society really works. We have built a culture defined by its veneration of the supreme worth of the individual human being: its institutions, its corpus of myth, its art - all exist to exalt the Sovereign "I." Death then becomes the great enemy, because Death makes "I" meaningless. A more realistic culture would re-evaluate its position in the face of this truth (most ancient cultures evolved an epic tradition for this reason - to reconcile man to the reality of death), but our society has far too much invested (often quite literally) in the sacred individual. So, instead, we engage in the Dance of Death Denied hoping that if we buy the right plastic shit, worship the properly complected Jesus and vote for the right politicians, somehow, the reality of Death will be dissipated.
The problem is that not everyone is dumb enough or deluded enough to buy into this crap. Inevitably, there are people that see the truth for what it is. Some are broken by it - they take themselves out with pills or heroin or just put a bullet in their brains. Some become enraged and shoot up their high schools or hijack airliners and fly them into icons of world commerce or mail package bombs to biotech profiteers. These people are dangerous to society, but only in a very limited sense. They are easily marginalized - they're 'fascists' who 'hate freedom.'
Some, however, choose a different course. Rather than burning out or blowing up, they speak up. Artists. Philosophers. Leaders. These are infinitely more dangerous to the social order, because they tell the truth when others regurgitate the lie, and truth, given substance by the weight of reality, becomes rather hard to ignore once the taboo against speaking it is broken. Like the beached whale at the seaside resort (reality intrudes upon purchased fantasy), the longer it is ignored, the harder it becomes to ignore it. Eventually, you're going to have to admit that something smells.
As a result, our society has a built in incentive to marginalize the truth tellers. From the perspective of the Death Deniers, it is imperative that Slayer be meaningless - if they aren't, then Death is indeed real, and, oh by the way, this society is totally fucked. So, first they turn to mockery:
"Ha ha! It's just dorks singing about Satan!"
"Ha ha! Deathklok!"
When mockery proves insufficient, appropriation must suffice. If Burzum or Mordid Angel or Nietzsche or Wagner or Dawn of the Dead cannot be mocked into silence, then the market must puke out something that apes the form but removes the truth-telling inner spirit, replacing it with something meaningless that can be mocked. Thus, we end up with Cradle of Filth, Cannibal Corpse, Jaques Derrida, shitty film scores and Dawn of the Dead.
It's all rather disheartening on the surface, but if you give it a deeper look, hope blossoms in the darkness: the Death Deniers are impotent. They cannot silence truth, nor can they make reality go away. All they can do is mock and copy, and, in the end, they are doomed to that they fear most.