Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Love is the best way to dispel terror of life

I remember some nights as I drifted to sleep as a child, closing my eyes in the silence of the night. I contemplated eternity in that state ? no sights, no sounds, no other humans, no talking ? forever. And then I would weep. Not about the monster under the bed, but the monster Plato named Thanatos. He had a grip around my entire life. And that monster seemed to say, ?Ha ha, here?s a little taste, but I will take it back ? forever. You won?t know when, you won?t know where, but you?ll know once I?m there.?

Ernest Becker says in his philosophical masterpiece The Denial of Death, ??the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity ? activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.?

Life is terrifying. None of us know what we are or why we are here. The only thing we can know is that we will die. Scientific theory after scientific theory is replaced by the next, so how can we say any of them are essentially true? And as Hume taught us, nothing humans say or do can truly be rational or irrational or true or untrue, because every action fulfills one person?s desire (making it rational or true), while that same action can be irrational (or untrue) to an outside party. But death is a definite true for every species on Earth

We are able to distract ourselves with sex, drugs and dreams. Dreams of what we will become. Dreams of what we will do with our lives that will leave that lasting impression. We go to college to get training for these career dreams. Yet, depending on your studies, you can either push death farther and farther into the back of your mind or come closer and closer to it. But either way it?s coming and it will get you.

Christians believe they know why they were put here and that they will live an eternal life. Very comforting. Soldiers take others? lives and feel they have conquered death in that they use it for their purposes or control it. Artists create a lasting impression of themselves through their creations. And so many others do so many other things to distract themselves, yet some are healthier than others.

Basically, love is the healthiest. Love for other humans, especially. Though the broken-hearted may disagree, love, romantic or platonic, is a wonderful thing. So let?s stop killing each other in wars, let?s stop the racism ? dammit, just stop the hate; we are all people terrified by the same thing. We need to get together. We are all shuddering and naked in this unknown world and we need to clasp on to each other for support.

Now I know I will be told I?m a fool and I should be the pilot of the hippie plane that flies around the world dropping heart-shaped envelopes filled with benevolence so the plane can be hijacked back to reality by Osama. But all I?m asking you to do is chill out. Listen to some more of The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, even The Beach Boys. Quit fighting each other in the streets at bartime. You don?t need to prove your worth; you?re just like us. We love you already, man.

Sam Bakken ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism.

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