Brave New Ways #6 / Delightful Death & Meaningful Life
Brave New Ways helps you ask the most valuable questions and do original thinking.
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No Time to Die?
“Sacred cows make the best hamburgers.” - Mark Twain
Death is practically a taboo topic in modern society. We are very poor explorers of life’s greatest unknown. Maybe you can change that.
The COVID-19 pandemic made the world pay more attention to one of the most neglected aspects of death: the things we need to die well. Until vaccines became available, the best way to “flatten the curve” was large-scale physical distancing. That had the unintended consequence of making death more painful: family separation, the prospect of dying alone, the lack of final goodbyes, the coldness of virtual funerals, the mass graves.
In hindsight, our plans for dealing with a pandemic were weak. Our plans for dignifying deaths caused by a pandemic were non-existent.
A century of medical breakthroughs has improved our lives. Has it also wrecked our relationship with death? If so, now may be your best opportunity in several generations to help us fix that relationship. But doing so will demand brave feats of original thinking and conversation.
The journey promises to be rewarding, for self and society: “In learning how to die we might also be taught how to live,” writes the philosopher Simon Chritchley.
Is he right? Some of us will have to risk the journey to find out.
Opportunities for Action
We need brave new conversations about death. Can you convene them?
Our desire to prevent death, combined with our inability to do so, has led to an abstinence-only avoidance of the topic. It’s making it very difficult for any of us to gain a richer relationship with death, because right now the dominant response is a negative one.
A practical starting point is to broach the topic of “a good death.” What might a good death or even a beautiful death mean to you? What might it mean to those people whose death you expect to be an important part of your own life?
Mehreen Zaman, Alex Jadad et al reviewed the entire medical literature on good death and came away with 11 conditions that people commonly cite when asked what they want at the end...
Spark Conversation
“Is there an afterlife?” This question concerns the continuation of our own consciousness, and we ask it a lot.
“Is there an aftermath?” This question concerns the continuation of our life’s consequences – and do we ask it enough? Van Gogh famously only sold one painting in his lifetime, yet became one of the most influential painters in art history after his death.
If we had more certainty about the aftermath, would it change the culture of celebrity? Would people become less worried about accumulating followers, and more worried that chasing after them might distract us from doing something more lasting?
If we had more certainty about the aftermath, would it change the culture of productivity? “Getting things done” is a popular mantra and hashtag #GTD. “Leaving things unfinished” is less catchy, but it may be more important in the long run. If we look back, we can probably all find examples of things we’ve done where, in hindsight, our greatest contribution was in getting it started.
In a time when the strength of one's “influence” is measured moment-to-moment by the size of your digital audience, it may be harder now than at any other time in history to recognize the reality of aftermath. Nonetheless, it is real.
The things we will never live to see may be the most lasting things about all of us.
How does that change the picture for you?
Got a new map? Share it with us on social media @neuegeo.
Rare Perspectives
Connect with people and ideas that can help you rethink death & dying:
- Watch Alex Jadad fearlessly explore the question, “A good death for all: What would it take?” I know you don’t have time for a 45-min YouTube video anymore. But make time for this one. As Alex says in his keynote, “We need to press the pause button and reflect.” Worth every minute.
- Read Rachel Aviv’s New Yorker article, “What does it mean to die?” about a brain-dead teenage girl who challenged that diagnosis by her signs of being alive.
- Listen to the TED Radio Hour’s collection of short audio on Rethinking Death. My favourite is Amanda Bennett’s “Do we need a new narrative for death?”
Explorers' Gym
A simple way to have deep conversations
The web is full of specific tips and tricks for doing deep conversations. Used in the right situation, they all work. Used in the wrong situation, none of them do.
More important than the particular set of rules or behaviours you set for your conversations is to talk explicitly about what those rules should be…
Premium Content
Watch Chris' video reflections on Delightful Death & Meaningful Life, and get his update on what's coming soon for Neue Geo members.
Join the conversation at the Neue Geo Discord Channel.
The Journey Continues...
“The map is not the territory,” the philosopher Alfred Korzybski famously wrote.
Nowadays it’s more complicated. The map often is the territory. Or the map makes the territory. Or the map actively hides the territory.
Next time in BNW, we’ll help you help others recheck the relationship between their maps and their reality…
🙏 Thanks for bringing your energy here. - Chris and your Neue Geo team
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