I was shilled into reading this by /lit/ thinking it was some sort of thermonuclear blackpill and sure, the overall picture presented by the work is bleak, but the cultural critique offered is very interesting and overlaps with many of the authors highly rated (or meme'd) here. I was also reluctant to read this at first because I don't like all the psychonalysis mumbo jumbo (dicks, wanting to fuck your mom and all that shit) but the value of the critique made me ignore all of that.The premise is simple: the main drive of human are not hidden impulses like Freud argued but raw fear of death and feelings of overwhelmness and powerlessness against the vastness of creation. To counter this and avoid succumbing at despair, human cultures create heroic projects where individuals can find meaning, order and peace. The failure of modern culture to create such heroic projects and trying instead to replace them with things like romantic love, sexual pleasure or consumerism, might explain the illnesses of current societies, namely, atomization, depression, widespread loneliness.>hur dur, should we then lobotomize ourselves so we can believe in big daddy in the sky again?Certainly we can't go back. Becker tries hard at the end of the book to reawaken the divine by pointing that reason can't tame the vastness of the world. As Pascal said: "the eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me". He heavily realies on Kierkegaard, who to his opinion, understood that true faith is not a mere social custom but bowing at the eternal and innefable. So then, a new man might arise.
Insane kike bullshit that no thinking individual would consider for a single second.
>>25414230let me first check the early life section of this (((author)))...
>>25414230I have had a rather strong fear of death my whole life, and at times would have generalized panic attacks over it.I'm honestly a little intimidated by this book and only recently put it on my list to read. Maybe it will be good for me.
>>25414235>>25414237Seems like the author is arguing FOR religion rather than against it.
>>25414235>>25414237>muh da joosis he right or not?
>>25414230I read this too and I do think it has merit, although in retrospect the book is more confused and shallower than I previously saw it. This isn't unusual for psychoanalysis, from what I've seen the field consists of a lot of handwaving. The way people describe this book is detrimental, Becker isn't just saying that a fear of death is at the root of all behavior, although his actual point is similar. What he speaks of is a fear of creatureliness, which is rooted in mortality, sure, however this is a much broader description. It is a fear of being nothing but an animal that lives a brief, inconsequential, undignified life in a universe that does not care for them. To remedy this internal crisis, we created culture from which we can derive importance and deny our disappointing essence and fate. Becker summarizes his thesis clearly:>The real world is simply too terrible to admit. It tells man that he is a small trembling animal who will someday decay and die. Culture changes all of this, makes man seem important, vital to the universe, immortal in some ways.While I think he was onto something important, and I consider his commentary on Kierkegaard to be fantastic, I find this perspective to be too limited. Culture serves to build our self-esteem, yes, but it was also created from our pursuit of things valuable in and of themselves, such as joy, community, love and ambition. Perhaps this yearning for transcendence isn't merely a flight from anxiety, but rather our striving towards things that are far greater and more divine than what our past basic hunter-gatherer existence could offer.Also, the antisemitic screeching seen here: >>25414235 and here: >>25414237 is painfully ironic considering Becker draws upon Christian theology to argue in favor of Christianity's effectiveness in satisfying the existential needs of human beings, namely its ability to not only provide a feeling of protection within an Absolute but to also allow us enough autonomy to develop a sense of self. Much of the book is spent explaining how secular alternatives are often insufficient as they are as impermanent and unreliable as we are (love, status, fortune).
>>25414230The answer is achieving gnosis and kick the demiurge in the balls.
>>25414725>Culture serves to build our self-esteem, yes, but it was also created from our pursuit of things valuable in and of themselves, such as joy, community, love and ambition. Perhaps this yearning for transcendence isn't merely a flight from anxiety, but rather our striving towards things that are far greater and more divine than what our past basic hunter-gatherer existence could offer.That's interesting. Thanks for the reply anon
