"The Will to Die, Part 2: Thanatos Walking" by SillyMickel Adzema

This discusses an age-old question that has become, currently, of the most immense importance - the struggle between the forces of Life and those of Death. The consequences... More »

This discusses an age-old question that has become, currently, of the most immense importance - the struggle between the forces of Life and those of Death. The consequences as to the winner of that inner struggle have to do with no less than the continued survival of life on this planet or total planetary collapse.

In the struggle between the current powers of life versus death, keep in mind Freud's paradigm-shifting observations about the human psyche relating to all humans lives being drawn out against the background of each person's inner struggle caught between the opposing forces of Eros and Thanatos, more simply, life and death. And specifically, and this involves the point that made his insight paradigm-shifting, that each of us carry within us a Will to Live and a Will to Die -- Eros and Thanatos, respectively.

So, Freud established that we act out a will to live and to be in the sun and to have fun and to love and to like goodness and health and truth. But he also saw that we have at other times an opposite feeling which causes us to want to live in the dark -- to not be around people, to shy away from life and the light and being seen and recognized and even to wanting to be lonely -- that causes us to not care about fun, to hate and be angry, indeed to hate everyone and even to want to lash out at them for no reason other than what might be self-labeled as spite; that causes us to hate goodness, calling things "kumbaya moments," that causes us to be jealous of others who are more giving and to hate them for that, call people "goody two-shoes" or saying something is "schmaltzy"; or saying that all that good stuff is just "drama"; and putting out terms like "bleeding heart" liberals; that causes us to beat up on our bodies and abuse them with all kinds of substances and behaviors; and that causes us to not care about the truth, but rather to say things instead to hurt, get revenge, to get back at; or to say untruths to get advantage, to disable our competitors, to hide from the evils we commit which enslave us further in the hiding of them, and so much more.

But Freud took it beyond our inner struggles and talked about how the events of the world, the actions and movements of history, the dramas of all the ages, are in fact the products of this inner struggle.

On one hand, our lesser selves are currently taking us on a path that leads inevitably, one way or another, to total species extinction, and not just that alone, but in fact total life extinction on this planet, and possibly even to planetary annihilation -- the destruction of this planet itself.

On the other hand, there are powers of light and authenticity emerging around the globe -- Barack Obama, Sathya Sai Baba, Joe Biden, Nelson Mandela, Nancy Pelosi, a new breed of Western and European leaders, some powerful new voices for truth that have surprisingly managed to gain visible positions in the mainstream media to fight back against the Rush Limbaughs, Glenn Becks, and the Sarah Palins. Time will tell whether we are reckless but heroic ape, with Eros winning out, or merely the suicide ape that the Bush Administration nearly guaranteed and the current batch of Republicans are doing everything in their power to ensure.
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Now, the intention is not to repeat all that Freud and psychologists have said in showing how this works; and anyway, just look at the evidence around you of addiction... More »

Now, the intention is not to repeat all that Freud and psychologists have said in showing how this works; and anyway, just look at the evidence around you of addiction, chronic accidentalism, unhealthy behavior habits without number, and of course the ultimate evidence: suicide. And by the way, if we have such a strong Will to Live, superior to all other species, then explain why it is so that we are the only species that has suicide? And we're supposed to be the conscious ones?

So, what Freud pointed out, which has had tremendous explanatory power, especially now in our current Depression/Recession, near environmental collapse, Wars and Terrorism, nuclear armaments of planetary annihilation, and tendency to pollute body as well as environment, and even to do it thoughtlessly, having heard of the consequences.

Freud said we struggled between these two opposite feelings throughout our lives. It is because of this contradiction that we carry inside that we can never be truly sure of who we are and even that we can question our motives and intentions (those more self-analytical of us). It is because of this contradiction that we can always feel that we could have done better, that people don't know everything about us, even when they say they do, and that sometimes we fear, especially when we are younger, that if people knew what we had inside they would shy away, not like us, think us to be bad, even monstrous. It is because of this contradiction that people are so terrified of revealing themselves, lest some of that not socially appropriate, socially sanctioned, socially approved part of ourselves slip out. And the fear there is that then we will be seen to have been found out; and that then we will be confirmed in our worst fears that indeed that "other" part of ourselves is -- the horror that cannot even be spoken in one's mind -- that dark part of ourselves is the real us; which carries with it the view that any of the "good" in us is just a cover up so that other people will not know.

The questions we need to ask are which side will win in the end, for certainly it will be decided one way or the other, and soon, of that we can be sure. And that is what makes this time and this question different from any other time. Because this question is not an academic one, now. It is one whose answer will become known far sooner than we would ever wish?

So, we will continue to live, and we will become good citizens of this planet and our species will continue on?
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