I feel our contemporary culture has a strong fetish for creativity. This culture we live in seems to raise creatives to a very high level of praise, reward and envy. Artists, writers, entrepreneurs, story tellers, film makers, scientists, tweeters, social media meme makers, etc - Oh what glory to be the One that comes up with the next big thing.
While bouncing around in an unfocused adhd manner, I passed through links on consciousness and the evolution of religious psychology to something about the fear of death that seems to resonate around the same note as that ringing sound I hear in regards to our culture's creativity fetish.
[I will not cite my sources here, because you can easily Google any unique string of words to find more primary sources.]
Death awareness became a highly disruptive by-product of prior adaptive functions. The resulting anxiety threatened to undermine these very functions and thus needed amelioration. Any social formation or practice that was to be widely accepted by the masses needed to provide a means of managing this terror. The main strategy to do so was to "become an individual of value in a world of meaning…acquiring self-esteem [via] the creation of maintenance of culture", as this would counter the sense of insignificance represented by death and provide 1) symbolic immortality through the legacy of a culture that lives on beyond the physical self ("earthly significance") 2) literal immortality, the promise of an afterlife or continued existence featured in religions ("cosmic significance").
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Because cultural values determine that which is meaningful, they are also the basis for self-esteem. TMT describes self-esteem as being the personal, subjective measure of how well an individual is living up to their cultural values.
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The terror of absolute annihilation creates such a profound – albeit subconscious – anxiety in people that they spend their lives attempting to make sense of it. On large scales, societies build symbols: laws, religious meaning systems, cultures, and belief systems to explain the significance of life, define what makes certain characteristics, skills, and talents extraordinary, reward others whom they find exemplify certain attributes...
While bouncing around in an unfocused adhd manner, I passed through links on consciousness and the evolution of religious psychology to something about the fear of death that seems to resonate around the same note as that ringing sound I hear in regards to our culture's creativity fetish.
[I will not cite my sources here, because you can easily Google any unique string of words to find more primary sources.]
Death awareness became a highly disruptive by-product of prior adaptive functions. The resulting anxiety threatened to undermine these very functions and thus needed amelioration. Any social formation or practice that was to be widely accepted by the masses needed to provide a means of managing this terror. The main strategy to do so was to "become an individual of value in a world of meaning…acquiring self-esteem [via] the creation of maintenance of culture", as this would counter the sense of insignificance represented by death and provide 1) symbolic immortality through the legacy of a culture that lives on beyond the physical self ("earthly significance") 2) literal immortality, the promise of an afterlife or continued existence featured in religions ("cosmic significance").
-
Because cultural values determine that which is meaningful, they are also the basis for self-esteem. TMT describes self-esteem as being the personal, subjective measure of how well an individual is living up to their cultural values.
-
The terror of absolute annihilation creates such a profound – albeit subconscious – anxiety in people that they spend their lives attempting to make sense of it. On large scales, societies build symbols: laws, religious meaning systems, cultures, and belief systems to explain the significance of life, define what makes certain characteristics, skills, and talents extraordinary, reward others whom they find exemplify certain attributes...
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