Somebody Is Going To Kill You
Imagine that somebody is going to kill you. Not trying, but going… to kill you. No matter what, you’re dead.
Small wonder you’re so paranoid.
Our ancestors had the habit of projecting human characteristics into the world. They surrounded themselves with versions of themselves. And there was the comfort that if you did things right, you could be as safe with the world as you were as safe with your neighbours. You could even prosper. For our ancestors, the question was always one of how to get along. They typically decided to kiss ass, major–almost totally fictional–ass. Over time, the ass got bigger and bigger, until it blotted the sky.
We called it ‘God.’
But he’s dead, and we don’t have that option no more. So we have taken it upon ourselves to outwit our now mindless and all-encompassing opponent. What was once assassination becomes something infinitely collateral. A fucking crap shoot. Worse than shrapnel. And then, when one of the million coiled black tentacles strikes, yanks away everything, all surfeit and all penury–
Nothing.
At least you could leave last words with God.
The inevitable opponent; can it be beaten? And if it could, would that be winning?
That could very well be the question our children will have to face. Given the Malthusian nightmare consequences, it could the beginning of a new aristocracy, with a few Deathless ruling over the mortal hordes. Something really Jack Vancian…
God is dead only because the fact of his existence doesn’t fit within the limits of our understanding, leaving the entire meta-system as a mystery.
In terms of defeating death, in the micro/intimate sense entropy may continue to rein supreme, but macro sense the fact of life itself continues to thwart her. Who is to say what the end game of evolution/life is? The evolution of the self-aware human system has been one of movement away from parasitism towards symbiosis, and with continued increases in technology I don’t see this pattern changing.
Do you ever feel sorry for a god? I mean, supposed to provide meaning for everyone else, but what did the god get? Meaninglessness, before it? We always want shelter, but what about the shelterer? If ‘shelterer’ is a word…well, it is now!
We mightn’t have god no more, but did we miss the point of the story?
And I’ve had to look up three words, for this post…
“So we have taken it upon ourselves to outwit our now mindless and all-encompassing opponent.”
Heh. Thinking, because it requires the expenditure of energy, actually merely accelerates the eventual heat death of the universe. Entropy is a bitch, and the faster you run, the quicker it gets ya.
[…] it’s where I’m born but, while the people could certainly believe that it’s about “bribing God”, that’s not a good representation of that religion, and the real one isn’t very […]
Do we actually think otherwhise now?
Aren’t we tying desease, accidents, events to other people?
Even gods aren’t we imagining him as a “human” looking personna?
And we are going to die and whenever someone’s die aren’t we finding someone (or those who use something) to blame?
The ancestors considered (like we do actually) that there was a logic to how things happened.
So if you died there had to be a reason, which might not be understood by those who stayed but by the one who did it.
If the one who did it was nowhere to be seen it was a personified being.
The fact that God blotted the sky is more of a mainstreaming of the power no?
It’s easier to remember and ask everything (or blame) one single God than having to remember who did what in what matters like the roman and greeks did (or druids or…)
So if the idea of God is dead, if we actually awaken to a bland morning where there is no one above to blame or fear or pray to.
We’ll start blaming one another for its loss and most of all those who didn’t believe in him first.
Once the world has been cleaned up from those and God hasn’t returned, the hope of the people will fall onto false prophets as they are the only one bringing hope in a desperate world.
Except if humanity has evolved enough to be able to take into account a world without logic, justice.
But if there is an opponent (which you seem to imply) how shall we react, how shall we outwit him?
Cheating at first, pushing someone else in its way. And like you say have a few powerful people use others to avoid it.
And the opponent like any opponent will learn and find new ways.
We’ll have the choice between annihilation (of the threat or of ourselves) or adapating.
And eventually it’ll also become a god to some. Would death be personnified there would be a cult about it, people working for it.
But if Gods die could death be a god? Wouldn’t humans try to take its place?
Pascal Boyer is man to read on religion nowadays. He has several fascinating theories on the `streamlining’ you mention. This piece is more about death as an omnipresent implication.
You’re daunting to read in english. A few words from you could mean a lot. So I take that “omnipresent implication” means death is there at all time and paranoia is the only way to fight it (assuming we consider we could win). In a way makes me remember the movie final destination (saw first one in my teenage years) but in a society behavior kind of way. yay I know that doesn’t raise the debate *grins*
You did say “Someone is going to kill you” and not “You’re going to die”. Now is the you, everyone who reads (the world) or you as a person?
If “someone is going to kill you” (a person in his society role or death impersonated) and it becomes a society fact I suppose being with someone will be forbidden. That humanity will find ways to live without one another yet connected (internet etc…) but that remind me of a book I read about people living in boxes and other people killing em anyway. How could you trust anyone to build a safe place if someone is going to kill you, how could you trust any service. Not enough place in the mountains to live as an ermite.
Wouldn’t we just live as we do now as we fail to find a solution? Aren’t most people living as they usually do during times of war?
Now if death itself is coming to get you, I guess i’d loop to my post above (research how to fight it, exploit others to avoid it,…) but I come to wonder now why I’ve disgressed so much about God.
I’ll try to get a look at Boyer, thanks for the tips. (Time to get him to tip you “R. Scott Bakker is man to read on fantasy nowadays” would be nice ;))
“death as an omnipresent implication”
Me dying is not the plan. I’m signing up for cryonics and living until the heat death of the universe, and possibly beyond if we manage to break reality. It’s going to be great. Ten million years from now I’ll be shaking my (metaphorical) head at the tragedy of all those humans who died of old age.
Maybe. When you wake up, I fear what everyone calls life will resemble what you once called death.