How does fear of death tie into the many battles of conquest over the centuries, such as destroying the native Americans? Do conflicts over oil stem from fear of death? You could make a case I am sure, but it seems too indirect to be too meaningful. I could tie everything to fear of death, because nearly everything we do is connected to some selfish motive.

Anyway, selfishness is so inherent to being alive that getting rid of it on a grand scale is certainly futile. We’ll have to find another way to solve the world’s problems.

For more on the second half of Dave’s second paragraph, try Joseph E. Stiglitz “Making Globalization Work” and Michael Mandelbaum “The Case for Goliath” — two books I had to read for class.

Seriously– champion rant. I liked the first paragraph too.

And to suggest that an entire population is willing to be a suicide bomber is very Cheyney-ish of you. From my limited knowledge, suicide bombers are often desperate people even by oppressed society standards. They’re treated like cultists, fed only a certain type of information and basically tricked into thinking that they can make their mark in this way – and this desire to make their mark and strengthen and continue their family lines demonstrates their fear of capital D Death (the end of their family line and their entire culture).

I don’t think we disagree, but I would call ego an extension of the fear of death. Needing to matter seems to me to be a direct response to the fact that we know we don’t matter. Hence conquering the fear of death would conquer ego.

Defying death doesn’t mean conquering your fear of death. Facing it, maybe, but not conquering it.

Nate, you can’t just dismiss suicide bombers out of hand like that by calling them “insane.” How can an entire population be insane, and what makes them insane but the very willingness to die itself? On top of that, how would the elimination of the fear of death change the equation for suicide bombers?

If self-preservation were the motivation were the cause of the many injustices in the world, why would we assume people would work in one another’s interest, rather than their own, if they were afraid of death? Isn’t the suicide bomber a good example of that: I don’t care if I live or die, but at least I can spend my life supporting the greater cause of my country. Maybe we would all be going into battle if we didn’t fear death.

Perhaps it’s the ego that would need to be squashed. People are motivated by things other than self-preservation, including: preservation of family, of country, and increasing one’s power (potentially a self-preservation step) and comfort level. Inequalities are driven by people’s drive for more without necessarily being tied to a longer life. People who defy death are no more peaceful or in-touch than those who are risk averse. I don’t think leaders start wars to preserve their own lives; in fact, they are risking their lives by the simple fact of being a leader. Was Hitler afraid of death? He killed himself rather than be captured.

I guess I’ll need to see a few scenarios before I can see exactly how eliminating the fear of death can help things.

Yet how could you be sure you’ve ever eliminated your own fear of death? In a real life-or-death situation, I assume that every living organism has a basic hardwired fear of death. I’m talking deeply, deeply hardwired, like hardwire #1. The only way to really test yourself would be to engage in a fatal activity. Other than living, I mean.

We could follow the example of dare-devils who risk their lives for money, sport, or glory… but those people aren’t really afraid of death. It’s the adrenaline rush brought on by the death-fear that they thrive on, right?

If we became indifferent to death would we still prefer life? Buddha overcame the fear of death, and was nice enough to stick around and teach us about it, but his conclusion was that the best outcome is to stop existing.

Can the fear of death be diminished through learning or meditation or courageous acts? Is there a fear-of-death gene that could be knocked out? Why is it that cocaine and alcohol can diminish the fear of death? Is there a medicine we could take to accomplish this?

In order to solve all the problems of humanity, we should broaden our goal from eliminating the fear of death to eliminating the fear of loss, since our lives are rarely threatened while other things–objects, money, opportunity, youth, loved ones, the world as we know it–are threatened, changed, or are passing away all the time.