Thursday, April 25, 2013

Life Anxiety, Part One: Science of Man

In the wake of the awful Boston Marathon bombing, many people will ask "Why?" A lot of answers are going to fly around. I think the best one has already been written. (But I still want to hear your thoughts. Tweet me @strangewander!)

Ernest Becker's Pulitzer Prize winning Denial of Death and its companion, the posthumous Escape from Evil, are an attempt at a "science of man." If that sounds vague, it's because "psychology" does not adequately describe this work.

One of the fundamental and revolutionary aspects of Becker's work is its interdisciplinary nature: he brings together ideas from biology, anthropology, sociology, literature and history, philosophy, mythology and theology.

He does not just include more facts. He draws connections. He reminds us that these things are already connected.

Becker's goal was to harmonize, to synthesize. To escape what Norman O. Brown called "sterile and ignorant polemics," those one-sided pseudo-conversations that go nowhere.

Looked up 'sterile polemics' in the dictionary!

So what is a "science of man?" It's a holistic understanding of how the human animal functions. How biology sets the parameters for psychology, which sets the parameters for culture.

Becker's books are about what we need, and what we're willing to do to get what we need.

Yes, Denial of Death and Escape from Evil are about death and evil and death. I know. Sounds hard, and way too dark.

Darker than what, I ask? Twilight? Hunger Games? The Walking Dead?!

All stories are about evil and death.



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