Our Society Is Confronting Mortality For The First Time, And It’s Not Going Well
by Matt Walsh, The Daily Wire:
Nobody likes to think about death or acknowledge that one day they will be claimed by it. But we live in a culture where people are especially determined to avoid such thoughts, and especially equipped to avoid them successfully. There is a never-ending supply of distraction, a million ways to stave off and sublimate death thoughts. There are whole industries dedicated to making us look and feel younger. And pop culture is constantly rehashing the stories of our childhood, allowing us to relive our youth, or at least pretend that we are. Add to that the pharmaceutical industry, with its cornucopia of pills to numb our pain, extend our lives, and even chase despair away from our minds. If ever anyone does have the audacity to die, in spite of all of these efforts, they will perform the unsightly act away from view, out of sight, in facilities designed for such purposes.
It is not that all of these things are bad in and of themselves. I much prefer to have hospitals and hospices for the dying, and I am grateful that many of the drugs at the pharmacy are available should I need them. But the combination of modern medicine, modern technology, modern entertainment — coupled with the decline of religion and the rise of secularity — has created a great psychological and emotional barrier, and on the “safe” side of the protective shield, we are able to carry on as if we are immortal, as if the Reaper only comes for those who look at its face.
This all seems like not so bad a way to live — until the barriers are broken, our methods of avoidance no longer work, and we are face to face with a reality that we are not prepared to confront. This is a moment that was always destined to happen to everyone. The doctor calls with the MRI results. You feel a lump in a place where there shouldn’t be one. A close family member is taken from you suddenly, by car accident or suicide. Everyone, at some point, has their wake up call, when death knocks on a door that you have no choice but to answer.
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