Attitudes Toward Death

On the evening of Shrove Tuesday, the Esthonians make a

straw figure called a metsik or "woodspirit;" one year it

is dressed with a man's coat and hat, next year with a hood

and a petticoat. This figure is stuck on a long pole,

carried across the boundary of the village with loud cries

of joy, and fastened to the top of a tree in the wood. The

ceremony is believed to be a protection against all kinds of

misfortune. Sometimes the resurrection of the pretended dead

person is enacted. Thus, in some parts of Swabia, on Shrove

Tuesday Dr. IronBeard professes to bleed a sick man, who

thereupon falls as dead to the ground; but the doctor at

last restores him to life by blowing air into him through a

. . .
o quest alone, man finds the courage to attach himself to what may be a more powerful personality or idea. The quest for oneness with the eternal, for identification with the powerful, is not only personal but cultural, and in a broad sense can be held to be at the core of the formation of civilization. "Society itself is a codified hero system, which means that society everywhere is a living myth of the significance of human life."9 This suggests that there is a collective longing for exemption from the terror of the ultimate. Yet as Becker demonstrates, the normal society cannot escape this terror. For as Whitehead says, "The Day of Judgment is always with us."10 Still, man seeks to validate his own worth, in life, by identifying with one considered more worthy. Natural narcissismthe feeling that the person next to you will die, but not youis reinforced by trusting dependence on the leader's power. No wonder that hundreds of thousands of men marched up from trenches in the face of blistering gunfire in World War I. They were partially self hypnotised, so to speak. No wonder men imagine victories against impossible odds: don't they have the omnipotent powers of the pa
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Manson Hitler, Denial Death, Civilization Discontents, World War, Eden Oriental, Central Becker's, Elisabeth KublerRoss, Middle Eastern, Joseph Campbell, Allen Manhattan, denial death, york free press, free press, york free, death dying, ed york, human existence, death rebirth, death death, anxiety death, death becker, york harper chapelbooks, 3d ed york, harper chapelbooks 1967, thinking 3d ed,
Approximate Word count = 3724
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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