When I was trying to understand why our workplaces make so many of us miserable as part of a company I was building, I ran across a management system called Holocracy, which tries to disseminate power more evenly throughout an organization. The founder discusses his inspiration for it by describing an event while he was a student pilot. Apparently, while on one of his first solo flights, he noticed that a “low voltage” light had come on. Given that all the other major indicator lights were fine, he chose to ignore this one light. It almost cost him his life.
The point of this story for organizations is that, often, we as leaders, tend to drown out the single voice when all other indicators are as expected, and that we do so at our own peril. As the methodology explains, we each have a unique perspective on life, and when one of us feels a tension, that tension, rather than getting buried by all the other voices saying that everything is fine, ought to be recognized.
When we consider Thanatism at the scale of a society, I can imagine it drowning out other voices. Thanatism makes a strong claim on the nature of human existence, and although I believe this claim is justified and important, every voice is important. No matter how foolish something may sound, the person saying it, says it for real human reasons, and because of that deserves to be heard.
Because of Thanatism’s inherent tendency towards totalization of the conversation, any Thanatist society must work diligently to protect the voice of the minority. It must work against the kind of groupthink that can ultimately lead to an organization’s or a society’s downfall. We must always remember that as these very words are being written, Thanatism is that minority position. In fact, at this point in time, it is a minority of one.
I could no doubt continue to prattle on endlessly about Thanatism and society. We, and our collective futures, are something dear to my heart. What has been written already, however, is sufficient for a beginning, and I think it appropriate to end this section with the warning that all totalizing conversations tend toward tyranny. It is important to remember that Thanatism is but one voice in a vast universe full of wonders yet to be discovered.
While I stand here, alone, looking out over a tumultuous ocean sunrise, it feels comical writing about a Thanatist society. I’ve released enough things into the world to know that the most likely outcome for what I’ve written this year is for it to be ignored. Perhaps a few will take the time to ridicule it for its audacity, but most likely this world will continue on, as it always does, unaffected by that single voice expressing a tension that it feels.
In general, I’m at peace with this. As I wrote in the beginning, I’ve started and stopped writing these words for nearly a decade. I’m glad that this year, I woke up one morning and decided to commit to writing this all down. It’s been good for me personally to work on this. Now that it has been written, I can hope that the voice inside of me that has been pushing me to express this can finally be quelled. Perhaps I can finally fully concentrate on my work, my family, and my village without feeling that I didn’t even try.
There is still, however, some small hope that this could be something more. Some hope that perhaps these simple sentiments, no matter how clumsily executed, might stir something in another person. And perhaps, that one other person will be moved enough to share their thinking with another, and that person will share as well. And just maybe, through these moments of sharing with each other, a few people can feel a greater sense of connection, as if they’re sharing a secret that has long been known, yet still needed to be said.
And of course, as this section of Thanatism and Society testifies, I hope this simple act of sharing amongst a few might become something greater still, that perhaps it is time for society to awaken. We, as human beings have accomplished a great deal. We have risen from a few hundred specimens into a species that has conquered a world. There is nothing on this planet we have not submitted to our will–a mighty accomplishment for the descendants of a simple tribe of apes.
We have yet to vanquish one foe however. You may think that said foe is death, and although this is true, that is not the foe I had in mind. Rather, the enemy of the people I’m thinking of is none other than ourselves. It seems incredible to me that a people who have fought so hard and sacrificed so much to understand this universe, would ignore what this universe says because its message is one we don’t want to hear.
We’re better than that. We’re relentless. When we believe and act together, there is nothing we aren’t capable of overcoming, and if we really want to, we can probably even someday overcome death itself. What I know, however, is that if we don’t soon find the courage to accept our own present mortality and the implications for our relationships with ourselves, others, and our society, we will never have the opportunity to find out.
Don’t let this be the end of the story. No matter how foolish any of what I’ve written may be, find it in yourself to forgive me for my failings. Ignore what is wrong in what I’ve written, and instead take a look into yourself. Find a way to confront that which you most don’t want to believe about who you are. Be the dissenting voice. Be the minority. And if death seems like a pretty good starting place for accepting truths about yourself that you don’t want to accept, come join me and perhaps a few others, as we work to build a new way of living in the truth, together, in the vain hope that we can one day become much more than what we already are.
In the past decade, there’s been a lot of backlash against science, medicine, history and other proponents of what I might broadly call “rationalism”. Those who battle against classical rational disciplines, whether they be flat earthers, anti vaxxers, or historical revisionists, reap unending scorn across the Internet. Some of this is fair. Having said that, given that Thanatism is clearly part of the rationalist traditions these groups reject, I want to take a moment to look at the motivations for the rise of this anti-intellectualism, as I think some of the same reasons these movements have risen, could lead to society’s rejection of Thanatism as well.
The first reason I see some members of society rejecting rationalist disciplines is that they deeply impinge upon our sense of personal freedom. Science doesn’t say that its theories are one of many possibilities and you can choose to believe it or not. It claims that its theories are true, and if you choose not to believe them, you’re wrong. In other words, anytime someone makes a claim to truth, they also limit your freedom to believe. Freedom is an incredibly important human value, so when something attempts to curtail that freedom, it feels like a violation.
Another reason people might reject these disciplines is that, as humans, we’re naturally creative. One of the things we want to participate in is the story of our world. For the vast majority of human history, we all got to participate in the collective creation of our cultural identity. Getting to create one’s own story is important. Once again, rationalist stories, like the scientific one, are so complicated at this point, and often require such complex mathematics to fully understand, that most of us don’t really get to play a role in their creation. This feels somewhat dehumanizing.
Further, these rationalist stories are told and controlled by quasi-authorities with unclear mandates. I don’t know the full history or motivations of the American Medical Association. Is there some Christopher Columbus Association that determines the shape of our planet? Isn’t it the victors who define historical truth? Who elected these authorities? From where do they derive their power? The answer to this is no doubt outside the scope of this particular work of faith, but the point is that authorities have proven to have hidden motives in the past, and it’s entirely reasonable for humans to resist submitting to them.
Finally, I want to point out how unkind our society is in its fetishization of intelligence. From the time we’re children to the day we die, we’re ranked, judged, and rewarded based on this particular human trait. Our educational institutions literally divide up children based on their intelligence. Smart people get more money for doing less. I have often said to others, “It doesn’t matter who’s right, but rather what’s right,” but as someone who was usually right, I never really understood how much it sucks to be wrong all the time. Sometimes, if you’ve been told you’re wrong long enough, you just want to be right–whether you’re right or not.
In some ways, Thanatism is frustrating in the same way these other rationalist institutions are. Thanatism claims that we shall all one day die forever. It also claims that most of humanity denies this, not because of any evidence to the contrary, but rather because it doesn’t like it. Having said that, here’s another claim I’ll make on behalf of Thantism–denying death is deeply human, and in that regard, understandable and, at some level, okay.
Thanatism doesn’t say you shouldn’t be afraid of death. You should. Thanatism doesn’t say you need to embrace death as something good. It’s not and you shouldn’t. Just the opposite–Thanatism sets as one of its core doctrines that death is the greatest tragedy humans can ever know. It’s untenable for a mind that can see back to the beginning of the universe and forward into its eventual end to be trapped in the relative instant of a lifetime.
The point is, I understand that, in some ways, Thanatism sucks. It sucks because it tells us we’re going to die. It sucks because it says we have to believe something we don’t want to. It sucks because it doesn’t give us a choice. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about these things, but having said that, if you don’t want to join us, I understand.
I just want you to know that if you feel anxious about life, and you can’t quite put your finger on why, it might be because you’re fleeing from something that you already know, and that this fleeing might be causing you more harm than you understand. If now or at some time in the future, you’d like to try to stop running, I want you to know that there is a growing group of other humans who are finding a way to live in the truth. Although we still have much to understand, the problem we’re working on is a deeply human one, and we’d be happy to have you work through it with us.
The fastest we humans have ever travelled is 25,000 mph (40,000kph). That was 50 years ago, and no human has yet to travel that fast since. We’ve discussed a great number of ways that technology is advancing ever faster, but moving people through space isn’t one of them. That’s because moving people around very quickly runs into the laws of physics, which are intractable. We can cleverly manipulate these laws using massive amounts of resources, but we can’t override them.
Humans, most likely, will some day go faster than 25,000 miles per hour. Using relatively well understood nuclear power, we believe we could accelerate ourselves to roughly 1/10th the speed of light. Should we eventually overcome the many engineering challenges of creating, storing, and safely using anti-matter, we could even conceivably reach speeds of ½ the speed of light. That’s about as fast as we can go, however, given the laws of physics we currently understand.
In addition to the hundreds if not thousands of years it would take for us to overcome the engineering challenges to reach these speeds, physics presents some other obstacles for us should we ever wish to better explore our universe. One problem is that we can only accelerate so fast without destroying the human body. If you’ve ever accelerated from 0-60mph in 5 seconds, you may have noted that’s about as much excitement as you could comfortably handle. If we were to accelerate to half the speed of light at what would feel like earth’s gravity, it would take us 6 months. Additionally, when travelling at half the speed of light, a few hydrogen atoms in our way could obliterate any material currently known to man.
The problem with the speed of light, however, isn’t that it’s too fast, but rather too slow, particularly when compared with the scale of the universe. If we simultaneously launched 11 spacecraft, all travelling at half the speed of light, it would still take 100 years to reach the 11 known planets in anything like an orbit that could sustain within that range. Were those missions successful, it would take another 50 years until their radio transmissions reached earth to let us know.
These are some pretty ambitious numbers, but not entirely improbable. It’s conceivable that humans could touch another planet outside our solar system where they wouldn’t be instantly vaporized within a thousand years or so if we really wanted to. Discovering life outside of our planet, however, is an entirely other question. When we consider the many variables required for life to have been born on planet earth, and given how utterly barron even the planets in our own solar system are, the preconditions for the spontaneous creation of the resource consuming entities we call life appear to be quite particular and rare.
Although we’re playing with numbers we have limited insight on, given the resources required for space travel, the distances that must be covered, and the statistical rarity of life, even if we generously speculated that one in a million habitable planets might spontaneously produce life, we’re looking at about 250,000 to a million years before we might find extraterrestrial life.
Finally, if we supposed that such life was intelligent and technologically advanced, we might suppose our first contact wouldn’t be in person, but rather through information sent through space. The tragic thing, of course, is that even if we did someday receive a transmission from another world, it would likely have taken so long to reach us, that it would encapsulate what that other society was like, not now, but millions of years ago. Our reply, should we conceive of how to send one, would then reach them an equally long time after it was sent.
The reason I write all of the above is that this is the reality of humans reaching out to another non-human intelligence. The fact is, the most likely scenario for humanity is that we shall fade from existence altogether, whether through the loss of this planet or by transforming intelligent life so radically that it would no longer qualify as human, without ever experiencing another intelligence that isn’t a fellow earthling or one of our creations. Such are the laws of physics, intractable and indifferent to what we may want.
If you’ve managed to read the posts before this one, you may have been at least amused by what has preceded. Afterall, how can one not appreciate the audacity of writing down a new faith in the 21st century. I’m glad if I could at least provide an hour or two of enjoyment, but before we wind down this section of Thanatism and Society, I’d like to leave you with a final thought–Thanatism is real.
Unlike our hopes to one day be rescued by an intelligence not our own, Thantism doesn’t run up against the laws of physics. In fact, there is nothing that prevents Thanatism, as roughly related, to become the reality here on earth. Social structures are undoubtedly intractable, but that intractability dissolves when the people from which those structures emanate, themselves, transform. And the transformation that Thanatism asks of each of us, including you, my dear, amused reader, is absolutely possible and in fact can happen right now.
And does Thanatism ask so much of you? Does it ask you to believe some ancient culture knew the secrets of the universe? Does it ask you to worship something that you cannot see? It doesn’t even require you to go to the gym a few times a week. In fact, what it asks requires no effort at all–just the opposite. Thanatism asks us to simply let go. It just asks us to stop fighting the world we live in and what it has to say about what we are. It just asks us to stop pretending we’re something that we’re not, and to accept each other for what we are.
This is the reality of Thanatism. Should you agree to let go, you will change. Should a few of us let go, we shall be able to commune with each other on a level so real, we have seldom gotten to experience it before. Should enough of us let go, we might even develop a small community where we can explore new ways to live. Should, however, most of us, or possibly even all of us, choose to let go, I can promise you that this world will undergo a transformation no less extraordinary than if ET were to beam down and tell us its perspective on the universe, for that other being wouldn’t be able to share with us anything as transformative as that which we already know.
Throughout my career, although I built many software solutions in an effort to solve a number of what I viewed as unjust social structures, no self-inflicted wound of society consumed me more than the seemingly rampant destruction of authentic community. How could we, as beings who derive so much joy from communing with others, have created a society where such authentic being-with has become so difficult?
It was during an early product meeting at one of those companies where I had what I considered a breakthrough in understanding this problem. During these meetings we would spend hundreds of hours trying to understand how communities work and how we might build software worlds that could promote human connection. At the end of what felt like another fruitless discussion, I erased all our diagrams and workflows from the whiteboard, and instead drew four names.
These names were of the people whom I had become friends with over the past few years. I then began to simply tell my team the stories of how we had met and how our relationships had developed. The first thing we discovered is that I didn’t really share that many interests with them. Given that we were often thinking of building communities of interest, this was an important insight.
The more shocking thing was that when I first met each of these people, I didn’t even really like them. What had actually happened was that my wife had developed relationships with their wives. Because of this, I had been forced repeatedly into social situations with these guys. I didn’t really want to do this, but the social situations were benign enough, and ultimately, I didn’t really have a choice.
What happened through these safe, repeated interactions was that we began to develop some history together. What had at first blush appeared as irreconcilable differences, became the quirks that made them who they were. Interactions that had felt forced, now felt natural. Instead of dreading these get-togethers, I began to look forward to them and even encourage them. In other words, we had become friends.
As I went deeper, back into my life, I saw a similar pattern. It wasn’t that I had repeatedly stumbled upon people who were perfectly suited to me. It wasn’t that there had been the perfect social preconditions for community development. Throughout my life, it was simply a matter of safe, repeated interactions that had made the magic of human connection bloom.
Religious institutions are dying in the Western world. Modern cities in the west are littered with the corpses of abandoned churches and synagogues that are either being destroyed, converted into commercial enterprises, or visited primarily by tourists exploring their architectural history. I don’t think this is because modern humans suffer from too much community. I don’t believe it’s because secular equivalents have risen to the occasion of helping us build the deep and meaningful relationships so essential to human happiness.
I believe the biggest issue with these institutions is that what gave them their vitality was that they were institutions of faith. In fact, those religious institutions that continue to grow are explicitly those who practice a more fundamentalist or evangelical breed of their religion–in other words, those whose members actually believe.
The problem is that it’s becoming increasingly intellectually untenable in a world that has learned so much about itself over the past few hundred years to base one’s core beliefs on stories written long ago by primitive people. We might be willing to visit these ancient texts, just like we visit ancient ruins of all societies–because some truths don’t change and sometimes the new obscures what was clear to the old. But asking a modern human being to believe the details are actually true? That’s more than the modern mind can bear.
Will Thanatism be able to build new, believable religious institutions?–a lofty goal indeed! I don’t know that any faith will be powerful enough to drag our overworked bodies out of bed on a weekend morning anymore. If it were, I suspect those mornings would be greeted with the same skepticism of any church-going dad who had to miss Sunday football or crusty-eyed kid dragged to Sunday school in the good old days.
Having said that, Thanatism doesn’t require any suspension of our ordinary ways of thinking to believe. It does possess the ability to transform the believer, just like the faiths of old did. And I do remember attending religious services as a true believer. They were different and possessed a vitality that’s difficult to explain.
And even if a place for Thanatists to gather doesn’t induce the religious fervor of the past, it could still perhaps serve as a place for safe, repeated interactions, a place where ordinary people could take a moment out of their week to join with others to reflect together on this conundrum we all find ourselves in called life. Perhaps we might even sing some songs together and share a meal.
Should Thanatism provide such a simple place where people could gather together and feel less alone for a bit, should we be able to rediscover a belief which can be common to us all, the kind which, when felt in the past, in other forms, has created places of genuine care, then we shall know we have truly arrived. For Thanatism is not a philosophy. It is not an argument. Rather, Thanatism is a faith, a faith for ordinary people to circle around and collectively remember that we, broken humans, are all that we have.
All faiths share certain characteristics. None of them are 100% verifiable, though some are more likely than others. They are all lay claim to the truth, though some require special ways of thinking. They also all set something at the core of the human person’s being, but that which sits at that core differs. Although all faiths share these similarities, that which they set at the core matters. It matters because the core of the faith defines the actions of the person of integrity, and how that core belief directs the person of integrity to act has ramifications for us all.
Unlike many traditional faiths, Thanatism is a faith of “this”. Whereas many faiths teach that this life is simply a warmup for the much greater life of the ever-me, Thanatism teaches us that this life is all we shall ever know. How does that key difference affect other beliefs and the actions they promote?
Assuming we’re judged in the next life by what we do in this life, and that the judge in the next life expects us to treat our fellow humans with respect and dignity, we may do good. If however, the judge in the next life spurns those who don’t believe in his judgement, we may too spurn those whom he would deem unworthy. We may end relationships with family and friends who don’t believe in that judge. We may even find it justifiable to hurt or murder those unbelievers in our future judge’s name.
With Thanatism, there is no future life. This means we can live this life without fear of judgement in another world. This may mean that we disregard the well-being of others and treat them with disrespect if we can get away with it. It may mean, however, that we know that those with whom we share this earth are all we shall ever know. It may mean that we understand that our lives are the only thing each of us truly possesses, and so life ought to be respected at all costs. It may mean that we work diligently to ensure that our social institutions are just, as they are the only justice any of us shall ever receive.
Many faiths teach that there is another world, one entirely separate from this universe. Sometimes there are multiple worlds–one for the good, one for the bad, and even one for those who have yet to choose. This may incline such believers to strive to justify their place in the good other-world. It may, however, help them to disregard how their actions affect the current world we all inhabit.
With Thantism, we know of no other universe. This world is the only one we shall ever know. This may mean we have no fear of retribution should we destroy it. It may mean, however, that we know that any destructive act against this world is equally an act of destruction against ourselves. It may mean we more carefully consider how our current actions will affect the only world our children will inherit. It may mean we work diligently to protect the only world that we know of where life can exist.
Many faiths teach that there is another being, one much greater than we ourselves will ever be. This may give hope to those who feel powerless. It may give them peace. It may also encourage them to acquiesce to tyrants whose reign is ordained by that higher power. It may lull them into complacency, since their actions can hardly compare to the will of this great other who is ultimately in charge. It may make them, when confronted with great evil, think perhaps that it is Thy will that this be done.
Thanatism teaches us that we humans, the most clever of animal-kind, are the only rulers this world currently knows. This realization that there is no other who can guide us, may cause us anxiety. It may however, also be a rallying cry towards action. It may encourage us to better understand how this world really works. It may burden us with a sense of responsibility that can make us better than we currently are.
This faith–Thanatism–teaches us that this life, and this world, and this people are all there is. It’s terrifying when a child comes to realize that they are now the parent. It’s terrifying when we realize that society is nothing but what we ourselves create. It is terrifying to realize that you are responsible for your life and the lives of others. If, however, that is what is the case, so shall it be.
