When we think about death, we have an ambivalent attitude towards it: we try not to imagine the moment when we will die, and at the same time we are attracted by all the situations that tend to recall it, such as car accidents, shootings, horror films, etc. This dualism stems from the fact that the experience of death places the individual between two fires: on the one hand, it forces him to face his condition of being finite ; on the other, precisely to escape this finiteness, man develops certain "strategies" to try to distance himself as much as possible from his inexorable destiny . It was the philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach who stated that:
“Every religion is born to reconcile the conflict between our infinite will and our limited possibilities”
Beyond any philosophical or religious conception (Christianity, in particular, holds that earthly life is a transitory life , awaiting the life of the Kingdom of Heaven), man's fear of death is not so much, and not only, for the physical pain it might cause, but rather the thought of no longer being here, of leaving behind loved ones, of leaving behind his belongings, and, in the worst case, of being forgotten. However, the Promethean tendencies of modern society seem to have distanced the way we accept and prepare for death from its original meaning. The vision of the writer Haruki Murakami is emblematic in this regard :
“Death is not the opposite of life but an integral part of it”
The amortal society
The concept of death has evolved over time so much so that we can speak of real phases that have influenced practices e rites, as well as the way of relating to and looking at death itself as an individual and collective experience. Modern trends had already pushed Edgar Morin to talk about "amortal society" because if on the one hand scientific discoveries and innovations have allowed and always tend to lengthen life, improve its quality and cure once incurable diseases, on the other hand death has become a sort of taboo. That is, man seems to have developed a cult of life by virtue of which, not having to worry or think about its cessation, he deludes himself that such finitude does not concern him. This illusion is also pursued by language and by common expressions in which the use of metaphors just to avoid saying it, to avoid naming it (death): from journalistic communication (nobody ever dies of cancer, but always "after a long illness“) to the technicalities of medical-hospital jargon, up to the hypocritical delicacy of everyday language (nobody has ever died: at most, it is “missed“, almost as if it had been lost) and the modest language of funeral home advertising (for which death has become a “transit"Or"death“, the relatives “the mourners”, the tomb “a burial”, the funeral “the obsequies”, the coffin “the bier”, the corpse “the corpse”, “the remains” or, worse, “the remains”, etc.).
Taking back death
It is society itself that, through these mechanisms of repression, basks in the idea of immortality when in fact the meaning of the social body lies in death. Cultural heritage is passed down from generation to generation precisely because the older generations will die sooner or later, and therefore, to use Morin's words,
“it has no meaning except as reproduction, and this term reproduction takes on its full meaning in relation to death”
Another expedient, so to speak, involves the creation of specialized institutions . In fact, fewer and fewer people die at home and go directly from the hospital to the cemetery. This hospitalized death often becomes a depersonalized one because in an increasingly youthful society (which is a paradox, given that Italy is the second oldest country in the world, after China ), it becomes a private matter, one of shame; an extraneous fact that we simply fail to recognize as a natural event, so much so that one of the recurring questions is "how did they die?" We reject the idea that a person ceases to live simply because their time has come. We must therefore reclaim death, talk about it, bring it back into our homes, among our loved ones. In other words, restore its dignity and, above all, life.
Death as a social fact
Death is a social phenomenon that often reflects the structural characteristics of a society. For example , inequality is a driver of the so-called differential mortality in life expectancy, depending on one's social class. This differential separates the poor from the rich within a country, but it can also have global repercussions and extends across ethnicities, genders, social classes, and so on. Differential mortality isn't limited to traditional occupational groups (think, for example, of nobles and workers). Recent studies have demonstrated a correlation between educational attainment and mortality, highlighting how it is three times higher among the illiterate than among graduates. Alongside the typical Western approach of hiding death, as if that were enough to distance it from life, there is an opposing approach that ultimately addresses it by taking its characteristics to the extreme, so much so that we can speak of "mediatized death." Before delving into its description, a brief excursus is needed to help us understand how we arrived at this stage.
Death in history
Schematizing the periodization proposed by Aries in his work “ History of Death in the West ” we can identify four phases.
1. The first, in the early Middle Ages, of the tamed death, during which the prevailing attitude is one of resignation. Death is accepted as natural, and there is a coexistence between the living and the dead. The rites are marked by simplicity and are public ceremonies charged with emotion, free from drama.
2. Subsequently, with the spread of Christianity, new elements were introduced into the rites and meaning of death, the vision of which remained marked by familiarity, but which was accompanied by the fear of judgement no longer collective but individual: to die well, one must behave morally. This period saw the birth of the Artes Moriendi, the manuals of dying well. Art represents triumphs of death, macabre dances that in their morbid description of the corpses reveal thelove for life as well as the terror of losing it. Death becomes the place where man becomes aware of himself: it is the phase of death of the self.
3. In the third phase, starting from the 17th century, we move away from worrying about our own destiny and begin to think about that of others. The death of the other is the death of loved ones, of their family members. During this period, the cult of tombs which however tends towards a secularization of the rites in which the dialogue with the deceased becomes part of everyday life.
4. The fourth and final phase described by Aries is the current one of forbidden death which begins after the Second World War. Death disappears from the social landscape and rites are emptied of their pathos and dramatic charge. It is no longer seen or thought about. In this regard, Ariès speaks of this "putting to death of death" as a "brutal revolution", an "unheard of phenomenon". From this period onwards, the idea began to spread that death was a law of nature against which one had to rebel (he had already realised this in time). Leopardi). The need to defeat death, which we had previously announced, can be traced back to this era. It is no longer simply a matter of passively accepting it, and perhaps it is with these premises that the figure of the priest at the bedside of the dying is joined (to the point of completely replacing it) by that of the doctor, cemeteries are placed outside the city walls, and the importance and emphasis on religious aspects diminishes. From a social point of view, we witness the creation of specialized figures who organize funerals, and the progressive secularization of ideas and beliefs means that the ultimate goal of life is to be remembered for one's actions and deeds. Commemorations have a reassuring function: they give us the certainty, or at least the hope, that we will die but that others will. they will remember.
Living without aging
Other symptoms of Christianity's progressive loss of its monopoly on death are, for example, the cremation of bodies or civil marriage, not celebrated in Church. These are essentially the elements that see the affirmation in contemporary societies of a current that looks at death with a different meaning. The scientization of life brings us to a fifth phase that speaks of it with two different, equally opposing, declinations: on the one hand, it is approached by postpone it as much as possible, on the other hand there is a progressive awareness of its inevitability; from this perspective, not only is it accepted, but it is also sought when medicine could prolong life through technology. Technological pressures are in fact leading us towards what Remo Bodei defines as "anti-destiny society" which is based on the frantic search for ways to live without aging, reducing the signs of aging to the point of almost completely eliminating them, based on the models conveyed by advertising and the media, the same ones that use war metaphors, sponsor anti-aging products, dismantling the search for its original meaning (recurring expressions are "fight aging", "declare war on pain" or "conquer death"). The reaction to these pressures is a new humanization of death, its reintroduction into individual and collective life. A first reason for this countertrend can be found in the distrust of Western biomedicine, which, with its presumption, excessive use of technology, and its claim to cultural hegemony, has given rise to the desire to turn to contexts that use different practices (a clear example is the success of traditional Chinese medicine, but not only). Another reason can be found in bioethical issues that have animated public debate through individual cases and stories that, having media and political resonance, have managed to transcend the religious sphere (emblematic in Italy have been the cases of Eluana Englaro e Piergiorgio Welby). Looking at the mass media from another perspective, we can see a further paradox. They have desacralized death, replacing ritual with spectacularization. Therefore, the oft-cited concealment mechanisms occur in a society surrounded by them, proliferating with television broadcasts and video content featuring car and motorcycle accidents or terrorist attacks. Death enters our homes packaged as news flashes, generating revenue and becoming a form of entertainment on a par with gossip.
Conclusions
The significant social phenomenon is the clear disappearance of real death from people's lives and the widespread diffusion of imaginary death. Summing up our reflections, technological advances have extended life expectancy by defeating endemic diseases, but have also led to the progressive marginalization of the sick from the community in which they live. Therefore, death, compared to other key moments such as birth and marriage, finds its place in sacred places, perhaps because religion is one of the few spheres where words can be found to speak of it and where it is not denied. Considering that humans are the only animals that bury their dead and are aware that death surpasses them, the mechanisms of concealment, acceptance, and attempts to escape it through technology are nothing more than strategies that allow us to survive the idea that one day it will be no more.
Carmen Pupo
Sociologist, copywriter, and journalist. I focus on topics related to inclusion and social rights. I also write about music, new media, and technology.
