3 Reasons on Why It’s Alright To Have Fear of Death
Because the fear of death is our fuel of life, whether we admit it or not.
Death — the final destination that we all will have to experience at some point in life. We can cumulate all the wealth we have, and all the resources we needed to try to avoid the incoming doom yet it can only prolong our life at best. Death is a must yet we are having a fear of it — why? Because humans always have a fear of the unknown and uncontrollable, death is an experience that no one can ever share or rule over, even if they spend all their lifetime trying to do so. The imagination of cease to exist will linger in those who have fear of death but this article that I write is not for you to suffer under it but to explain why it’s humane for us to obsess with the idea of against death.
Self Preservation
This is based on Ernest Becker, an American cultural anthropologist write in his book “The Denial of Death” :
In other words, the fear of death must be present behind all our normal functioning, in order for the organism to be armed toward self-preservation. But the fear of death cannot be present constantly in one’s mental functioning, else the organism could not function.
The reason you work, the reason you start your activity, study, or even going out with your friends can be traced to your underlying sense of fear of death. Work so you don’t have to starve to death, study so you can afford the job and learn something to preserve your life in higher quality, or just simply being with your friends who are willing to help if you ever get in a grave danger. Fear of death is normal and we are experiencing it every day in our nature even though an extreme sense of anxiety towards death might exist due to a lack of safety and certainty for his/her own survival.
Your Loved Ones
One of the reasons some people have fear of death is because they are not ready to part ways with their loved ones yet. A single parent, having a fear of death wondering what will happen if they are not there for their children when they need it the most. Similar questions such as “who will guide them and make sure they won’t go down the wrong path?” or “If I wasn’t there to protect them, who will?” will eventually pop out. Another example in a different situation would be — what if we are diagnosed with chronic disease with a low chance of survival? We might be gladly accepting our fate but those who are close to us will try their utmost effort in order to save us from such fate, even if it means being hugely in debt or selling everything they have. We are not ready to say bye, we don’t want to be a burden, and there is still so much love you want to give to them, and all of that concern will create a fear of death itself.
You Have a Life That Worth Fighting For
Without passion or ambition, life would be meaningless. Even if your current state is just playing video games or watching movies all day, I still respect that — at least your passion is “to live as fun as you can get” by default based on your behavior. To have that drive of life itself is something that you should be proud that you have because there are individuals out there, feeling completely lost in life and find that death is another simple step for them. You, having a fear of death, meaning that you have a life worth fighting for, you still have things to do in this worldly plane either for fame, family, or something as simple as personal satisfaction.
Conclusion
There might be other whole reasons why it’s normal about having a fear of death itself, but what I want to bring out in this writing is that you and I are both under the same situation even though the scale of our anxiety is different. We all will die one way or another, so why don’t we give a meaning to our death? As Sigmund Freud said:
Would it not be better to give death the place in actuality and in our thoughts which properly belongs to it, and to yield a little more prominence to that unconscious attitude towards death which we have hitherto so carefully suppressed?
We should realize that life is too short and too important to be wasted on thinking whether tomorrow will be served for us or not. To live your best at the moment, to love the one you hold dear the most, to achieve your worldly objective, when you are focusing on these — hopefully, the fear of death itself will be suppressed.
I write this one inspired by the video that I watch recently, so if you want to enjoy being terrorized with death in a humorous way the same as I do, hop in this video!
