Abandoned

Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death

"Becker's philosophy ... is a braid wowen form four strands.

 

1. The world is terrifying. Mother Nature is a brutal bitch, red in tooth and claw, who destroys what she creates. We live in a world in which the routine activity for organism

 

2. The basic motivation for human behavior is our biological need to control our basic anxiety, to deny the terror of death. That is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings-and with all this yet to die.

 

3. Since the terror of death is so overwhelming, we conspire to keep it unconscious. But the price we pay is high. We repress our bodies to purchase a soul; we sacrifice pleasure to buy immortality. Society provides a second line of defense against our natural impotence by creating a hero system that allows us to believe a hero system that allows us to believe we transcend death by participating in something of lasting worth.

 

4. Our desire for the best is the cause of the worst. We want to clean up the world , make it perfect. Our heroic projects that aimed at destroying evil have the paradoxical effect of bringing more evil into the world-my gods against your gods, my immortality project against your immortality project."

 

(from the preface of Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death)

Veggies Men Need

Men need three one-cup servings of vegetables every day to stay healthy, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Here are five veggies to keep you fit.

Romain Lettuce. Dark-colored vegetables like romaine and spinach have a plethora of vitamins and minerals that improve electrolyte balance and speed recovery. Antioxidants in these foods block damaging effects of free radicals formed when tiny blood cells are crushed during workouts, and their electrolytes reduce cardiovascular stress.

Chard. Best for preventing heart disease. Guys who eat eight servings of veggies a day enjoy a 30 percent lower chance of having a heart attack than those who barely touch he stuff.

Broccoli Sprouts. They contain high doses of sulforaphane, a compound that increases production of antioxidant enzymes in airways.

Squash. Best for keeping your eyesight. Yellow squash contains three pigments that promote good vision. Lutein and sanguine scavenge the free radicals (unstable molecules born from pollution and stress, which can damage cells) that cause eye diseases such as cataracts, and beta-carotene (which converts to vitamin A, stored in the eye) is key for night vision.

Tomatoes. Best for staving off prostate cancer. They contain lycopene, which helps neutralize free radicals. The prostate happens to concentrate lycopene, and researchers think that helps protect against cancer.

Apprendre la mort

La mort et la pensée. La mort est radicalment impensable: un peut penser à la mort, sur la mort, mais non la mort elle-même. (Comme l'observait Kant, nul n'en peut faire l'expérience, et la pensée que "je ne suis pas" ne peut absolument exister.)

Le scandale de la mort. La mort étant donc proprement impensable, inconnaissable et incroyable, elle apparaît comme le scandale absolu.

L'angoisse de la mort. Incompréhensible, irreprésentable, la mort est par là même source d'angoisse. Pour lutter contre celle-ci l'homme adopte les attitude les plus diverses:

1) Fuir la mort en tentant de l'oublier dans les occupations et les plaisirs de la vie. C'est que Pascal nommait le "divertissement".

2) Se réfugier dans l'espérence d'une vie eternelle. C'est l'attitude religieuse.

3) Vaincre la peur qu'elle inspire. 
- pour Épicure, c'est par ignorance que nous craignons la mort. Celle-ci, en effet, est un pur néant.
- pour les stoïciens, la mort est un processus nécessaire qu'il faut accepter et attendre avec sérénité. Montaigne: "philosopher c'est apprendre à mourir".

4) Refuser toute consolation et accepter sa dimension tragique.
- Selon Heidegger, l'homme est un être-pour-la-mort et l'angoisse qu'elle entraîne est la donnée essentielle de l'existance humaine. La refuser c'est dons refuser de vivre une vie authentiquement humaine.
- selon Camus, la grandeur de l'homme vient de ce qu'il s'élève sans cesse contre la mort en sachant qu'il sera vaincu par elle.