living

Over a decade ago I had the idea of writing a book about death! I was in my sixties and was realising that the end was nigh! I thought I would record my thoughts and feelings as well as bringing together a bit of research and gathering some views around the thorny subject of death.

Four of my friends died last year. That focusses the mind.

Over the course of years I keep returning to the book and, as the mood takes me, adding a little bit. It’s become very rambley but I kinda like that. I’ve amassed over a hundred pages. This is chapter 68!

Egocentric Solipsism and other after death philosophies.

Death; the end or a new beginning?

So what have I got to look forward to after death? According to many different people there’s an afterlife to look forward to. Except nobody seems quite certain about what this might consist of. I wonder what they have dreamt up. There are so many different versions.

I kind of like the egocentric soliptic view of death. Solipsists believe that they are the only thing that exists. If that is true the whole universe comes out of my imagination. When I die the whole cosmos ceases to exist. Neat.

I bet this philosophy is the one Trump goes for!!

There are many other views of what our fate is after death. We, as a species, have certainly spent a lot of time and effort contemplating death and its aftermath. What is striking is that each religion and faith ardently believes that their version is the only one that is true. They’ll fight you to the death to defend it!

The Hindu’s believe that we will be reincarnated 52 million times – first as plants, then microbes, then invertebrates and work our way back up to human beings. Jains even go so far as to wear veils so they don’t inadvertently inhale living organisms and brush the ground in front of them. After all, you could be stepping on a relative. At least that gives us a good reason to look after the planet and all living creatures as well as something to do why whittling away the seconds of eternity!

The small matter of death and what happens after is very vexing. But then are we really alive at all?

This could all be one big dream. The entire universe might have slipped out of some ephemeral somnambulant whimsy as my subconscious wistfully conjures up this unlikely cosmos in some random fantasy. Or this might all be the dream of some superior being? Or are we all electrons whizzing around in some computer simulation? Are we characters in some superior version of Mario Brothers? Or some sinister version of The Matrix?

There again it could be that we are already dead. This is the afterlife!

Probably not.

Some beliefs in the afterlife are patently nutty. The Rastas have developed the strangest belief. They reckon that if you live a good Rastafarian life you are reborn in the magical land of Ethiopia. They see this as a returning to their roots. All very well but I can’t see there is a great deal to aspire to in that. If the best you can hope for is to be reborn in a Third World country ravaged by war, starvation and poverty with an infant mortality rate of 68% then you are not setting the bar very high.

I much prefer the Aztec idea. Their warriors were spurred on with the promise that if they died in battle they would be reincarnated as butterflies or hummingbirds.

The concept of an afterlife has proved very useful for chieftains, Kings, Emperors, religious leaders or generals looking to raise armies to fight wars. It’s OK. Fight for us and you won’t die; you’ll gain eternal ecstasy!

The afterlife and religion has been used by most cultures as drivers to encourage people to kill, to go into battle, to fight for an idea, a leader or some cleansing purpose. It’s usually to increase someone’s power or wealth. Warriors are encouraged to pray, dress in a certain way, paint their bodies blue or adorn them with magical symbols in order to ensure their safety. Should the wishes of their god mean that they lose their life they are assured a place in paradise and will wake up in a wondrous place with everything they could ever hope for.

Sounds like bollocks to me. Makes me smile when I note that all these religious leaders or military leaders are never to be found on the front line putting their own lives at risk. Putin is in his bunker. The Jihadists like Bin Laden are deep in their caves. They are too important to risk in battle! Or is it that they don’t believe the bollocks they are dishing out? Whatever! Needless to say, they don’t strap on the explosives or fly the planes into skyscrapers. They get their minions to do that.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t like the idea of death any more than you do. Not something I’m looking forward to. I just know that it is inevitable. I am ageing. You could say that I am already dying. Some indeterminate time in the not too distant future I will get a pain or suffer an event and I will start dying for real. That’s why I started writing this book; to record the process.

There is no way to avoid this fate. It is on my mind!

I could try a dollop of science to provide me with eternity. When I do get ill I might try a bit of cryogenics and have myself frozen and thawed out once they’ve discovered a cure for whatever illness I go down with. They might have even cracked mortality. We could live forever in our own bodies without fear of death. Not sure how I’d feel about that. After a million years it might begin to drag. Probably as bad as heaven!

No. I’m resigned to death though I’m presently thinking that I wouldn’t mind having a few more decades, or even centuries, before the inevitable. I like life.

I accept that in reality death will happen sometime during the next twenty years. I’ll die. It might be sudden or it might be a slow deterioration and something I can write about in this book. I intend to tell you about how it feels and what I think about it if I can.

Death is not something I wish to have any deeply held beliefs about. I prefer life. Death can take care of itself. I want to live my life to the full, pack it with fulfilment and do what I can to cause pleasure and contentment for myself and others. I have an affinity for nature and do what I can to further the harmony of the natural world. Our treatment of each other and the planet distresses me. That’s a modicum of altruism for you.

I’m investigating death. It intrigues me.

Anybody who assures you that they know about death and the afterlife is talking bollocks.

I kinda think that if we didn’t believe in religions and afterlives; if this life was all we thought we had, we might look after ourselves, others and nature a hell of a lot better!

I suppose, like Albert Camus, I’m a nihilist. I don’t believe there is anything after death. Like him I also believe that this brief splutter of life is utterly absurd.

Wonderful though life is I can’t help but shake my head at the sheer stupidity of mankind. The mess we have made. We have divided the world into tribal nations; spend the bulk of our ingenuity and intelligence or building weapons and carrying out acts of violence. The bulk of us live in poverty while a tiny number have hundreds of thousands of times more than they could ever need. Starvation, disease and deprivation are the lot of the majority. We destroy the natural world and pollute our own environment, periodically blowing it all up and rebuilding it. We elect fascists and highly damaged narcissistic nincompoops like Trump, Johnson and Farage; men who promote hate, division and tribal racism, who perpetuate the crooked system. And still we consider ourselves intelligent.

If we were intelligent I reckon the world would be organised a lot better than this. We wouldn’t be tribal, racist or shackled to ridiculous religious beliefs. We’d have far greater equality. Everybody would have enough, and more. Happiness and fulfilment would be the norm. We wouldn’t waste our money on destruction. The natural world would prosper alongside us and we wouldn’t be shitting in our own beds.

I blame the state of the world on this invention of an afterlife!

Give me death any day!