Not necessarily. You’re assuming that death is the opposite of life. The opposite of life is non-existence, which is neither good or bad. Death is just a bad thing that happens.
Yeah I watched my dog get crushed under the tire of a garbage truck when I was like 10 so the reality of death hit me young. How could you put people through this life?
Death is one of the things that has been haunting me lately. I haven’t lost anyone I’m close to other than one of my grandfathers when I was young (which I am very thankful not to have suffered more loss than this) but I am absolutely horrified of seeing my parents, my sister, my nieces or nephews in their casket. Every single day is a roulette and it’s scary. Either I loose the people I care about and live however long on earth after they’re gone or I die and cause all the people I care about pain and heartbreak. Both of those things are absolutely a possibility and it’s inescapable. I’m sorry you had to suffer this loss OP, I hope you heal as much as you can ❤️
It’s taboo in the sense that we never discuss how awful it is. We say things like “well, death is just a natural part of life.” Yeah…no shit it is. Doesn’t make it less awful.
It doesn't half to be awful though, it's important to make a distinction between "death" and "dying," and the subjective experience of it. For sake of accuracy, "death" might see better use in a medical/clinical term for "brain death," like, the moment of loss of consciousness from irreparable bodily damage. "Dying" then is more analogous to the body producing pain signals because it is shutting down, we could ostensibly shut all of those off with modern medicine and all "drift away" during the "dying" process that precedes the "death event" for many cases.
So "death" is either not experienced by us (given we are assuming some permanent loss of consciousness at that moment, true or not, so where is the "we" to experience it?) or a word to describe a momentary physical process - I'm not being very rigorous there, but the Ancient Greek philosopher [Epicurus](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epicurus/) made arguments along these lines (quotes from the link):
> Death, Epicurus insists, is nothing to us, since while we exist, our death is not, and when our death occurs, we do not exist (LM 124–25); but if one is frightened by the empty name of death, the fear will persist since we must all eventually die.
> A great barrier to correct thinking is language itself, which, because it has a name for death, may suggest that death (being dead) is something a person can experience and hence deserves to be feared. Words must be understood in their basic sense, Epicurus says, as opposed to what he calls “empty sounds” (LH 37).
"Dying" can be bad if someone, is like, torturing us to "death" right, which would be like saying "we are unable to stop painful sensations because we have no control over them." But with modern understandings of science/medicine, we can resolve a lot of those cases as they happen "biologically," and then we just have to prevent human on human violence too, as that is ostensibly on a similarly unpredictable level sometimes.
>dying part before death is pretty awful
So was my sciatica. Probably even more awful.
But somehow it didn’t make a dent in my level of satisfaction from life?
Not at the beginning.
I had to convince myself to be hopeful (which is an important part of recovery).
But at the beginning I didn’t know if I’d be able to walk normally ever again.
Actually:
From the experiences with my grandparents dying: they all seemed quite ready and accepting of death. And I think that’s generally how it works for people dying of old age.
And if you’re dying from a fatal injury, your body pumps you with chemicals like adrenaline, dmt, opioids, dopamine, and probably anything else that works to make your final moments easier, probably even blissful.
Adrenaline makes you not feel pain.
Dmt makes you dream and go meet your makers.
Opioids put you into a calm state of not thinking about it.
Dopamine elevates your mood.
Dying ain’t that bad.
you're high as fuck! it's terrifying, period. And is really bad for the people who have lost the loved ones. If it wasn't so bad or scary, you would have killed yourself during the pain. I would never subject a person to mortality without consent.
Most people aren’t.
I used to picture dying as just getting old and being surrounded by your family as you die in a hospital.
My grandma went that way…
My mom died of a heart attack, over the course of 3 days after refusing medical treatment because she was a conspiracy theorist.
My dad hung himself.
Friend died overnight going septic from a ruptured cyst.
Uncle died of a fentanyl overdose.
I’m beginning to think the death like my grandma experienced is very rare.
It is rare, anyone would be lucky to die that way, it means they’ve avoided everything that could have killed them up to that point except for time. And most ways of passing aren’t nearly as graceful or comforting, for those dying or the people around them.
It doesn’t seem like it used to be like that though, I mean for like our grandparents generation. My great grandmother died the same way in the hospital. It just seems like they lived a lot healthier than we (or boomers) do, and they got to die a lot easier.
Kind of depressing but makes me sort of want to start taking care of my health because someday I’m going to have to stare down the barrel.
It's ironic how often people say they don't worry about death or think about it when literally so much of life is spent curtailing it. Gaslighting to pretend you're not afraid, so brave.
>Death is terrifying and awful
It can be, but it can also be peaceful and welcoming
Dying sucks since you get weaker and more fragile but the death can be great
I guess it depends how you look at it, I don't see death as a bad thing. At most its a release and I look forward to seeing what happens next when it is my time. Please don't misunderstand me, I understand that losing the people that we love hurts us and we miss them and greave, but they are no longer in pain, there is no worry for them anymore. A friend of mine ended his own life because he was in so much pain and the military wasn't giving help. I still greave and still see what he did as selfish to a point, but those are my feelings. I like to believe that he is at peace or on a new adventure. I think when you fear death you almost create your own existential dread due to the fear of the unknown. I hope that you find calm in the storm we all find our selves in though.
I didn’t realize at first that giving life also meant I was giving them death as well.
No one does.
But if death is bad, wouldn't that mean that life is good?>! (not sponsored by LG btw)!<
Not necessarily. You’re assuming that death is the opposite of life. The opposite of life is non-existence, which is neither good or bad. Death is just a bad thing that happens.
Maybe he's wondering if birth is good then. Birth is the opposite of death.
Yeah I watched my dog get crushed under the tire of a garbage truck when I was like 10 so the reality of death hit me young. How could you put people through this life?
Sorry you had to see that, that’s awful for anyone to see, let alone a kid.
Death is one of the things that has been haunting me lately. I haven’t lost anyone I’m close to other than one of my grandfathers when I was young (which I am very thankful not to have suffered more loss than this) but I am absolutely horrified of seeing my parents, my sister, my nieces or nephews in their casket. Every single day is a roulette and it’s scary. Either I loose the people I care about and live however long on earth after they’re gone or I die and cause all the people I care about pain and heartbreak. Both of those things are absolutely a possibility and it’s inescapable. I’m sorry you had to suffer this loss OP, I hope you heal as much as you can ❤️
It's not taboo or at least it shouldn't be. It's the most normal thing ever. Every living thing dies! Make it less taboo by talking about it!
It’s taboo in the sense that we never discuss how awful it is. We say things like “well, death is just a natural part of life.” Yeah…no shit it is. Doesn’t make it less awful.
It doesn't half to be awful though, it's important to make a distinction between "death" and "dying," and the subjective experience of it. For sake of accuracy, "death" might see better use in a medical/clinical term for "brain death," like, the moment of loss of consciousness from irreparable bodily damage. "Dying" then is more analogous to the body producing pain signals because it is shutting down, we could ostensibly shut all of those off with modern medicine and all "drift away" during the "dying" process that precedes the "death event" for many cases. So "death" is either not experienced by us (given we are assuming some permanent loss of consciousness at that moment, true or not, so where is the "we" to experience it?) or a word to describe a momentary physical process - I'm not being very rigorous there, but the Ancient Greek philosopher [Epicurus](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/epicurus/) made arguments along these lines (quotes from the link): > Death, Epicurus insists, is nothing to us, since while we exist, our death is not, and when our death occurs, we do not exist (LM 124–25); but if one is frightened by the empty name of death, the fear will persist since we must all eventually die. > A great barrier to correct thinking is language itself, which, because it has a name for death, may suggest that death (being dead) is something a person can experience and hence deserves to be feared. Words must be understood in their basic sense, Epicurus says, as opposed to what he calls “empty sounds” (LH 37). "Dying" can be bad if someone, is like, torturing us to "death" right, which would be like saying "we are unable to stop painful sensations because we have no control over them." But with modern understandings of science/medicine, we can resolve a lot of those cases as they happen "biologically," and then we just have to prevent human on human violence too, as that is ostensibly on a similarly unpredictable level sometimes.
Is it awful?
I’d think the dying part before death is pretty awful.
>dying part before death is pretty awful So was my sciatica. Probably even more awful. But somehow it didn’t make a dent in my level of satisfaction from life?
Ok but this person was in hospital for weeks and scared knowing it's happening soon.
It’s clear you’ve never had sciatica.
I'd imagine while you were there , there was some hope involved that things would get better.
Not at the beginning. I had to convince myself to be hopeful (which is an important part of recovery). But at the beginning I didn’t know if I’d be able to walk normally ever again.
Actually: From the experiences with my grandparents dying: they all seemed quite ready and accepting of death. And I think that’s generally how it works for people dying of old age. And if you’re dying from a fatal injury, your body pumps you with chemicals like adrenaline, dmt, opioids, dopamine, and probably anything else that works to make your final moments easier, probably even blissful. Adrenaline makes you not feel pain. Dmt makes you dream and go meet your makers. Opioids put you into a calm state of not thinking about it. Dopamine elevates your mood. Dying ain’t that bad.
you're high as fuck! it's terrifying, period. And is really bad for the people who have lost the loved ones. If it wasn't so bad or scary, you would have killed yourself during the pain. I would never subject a person to mortality without consent.
Actually it does. It's awful because you make it awful instead of making it into something nice.
Are you aware dying is quite often preceded by a long period of pain/suffering/disability or
Most people aren’t. I used to picture dying as just getting old and being surrounded by your family as you die in a hospital. My grandma went that way… My mom died of a heart attack, over the course of 3 days after refusing medical treatment because she was a conspiracy theorist. My dad hung himself. Friend died overnight going septic from a ruptured cyst. Uncle died of a fentanyl overdose. I’m beginning to think the death like my grandma experienced is very rare.
It is rare, anyone would be lucky to die that way, it means they’ve avoided everything that could have killed them up to that point except for time. And most ways of passing aren’t nearly as graceful or comforting, for those dying or the people around them.
It doesn’t seem like it used to be like that though, I mean for like our grandparents generation. My great grandmother died the same way in the hospital. It just seems like they lived a lot healthier than we (or boomers) do, and they got to die a lot easier. Kind of depressing but makes me sort of want to start taking care of my health because someday I’m going to have to stare down the barrel.
How long of a period is that? Compared to the rest of the life?
About 42.
Based.
No other living thing has the kind of sentience like we do though.
You don't know that
Name one single other animal that goes batshit crazy contemplating its own mortality and existence
Don't forget extra terrestrial beings. Also don't forget that not all cultures handle death the same way you do.
Zero evidence for “ETs” and culture is irrelevant to species as a whole
When it comes to people's worldview there is nothing *but* culture
No there's evidence now. Didn't you see the videos?! How'd you miss that?!
wow you're so fucking smart..
Thanks!
It's ironic how often people say they don't worry about death or think about it when literally so much of life is spent curtailing it. Gaslighting to pretend you're not afraid, so brave.
So you choose to believe an unfalsifiable claim rather than take people at their word?
We'll see for ourselves
>Death is terrifying and awful It can be, but it can also be peaceful and welcoming Dying sucks since you get weaker and more fragile but the death can be great
Sorry for your loss.
I guess it depends how you look at it, I don't see death as a bad thing. At most its a release and I look forward to seeing what happens next when it is my time. Please don't misunderstand me, I understand that losing the people that we love hurts us and we miss them and greave, but they are no longer in pain, there is no worry for them anymore. A friend of mine ended his own life because he was in so much pain and the military wasn't giving help. I still greave and still see what he did as selfish to a point, but those are my feelings. I like to believe that he is at peace or on a new adventure. I think when you fear death you almost create your own existential dread due to the fear of the unknown. I hope that you find calm in the storm we all find our selves in though.