WEBVTT 00:00:04.549 --> 00:00:29.839 Thank you. So part of the reason that we might 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:32.740 seek some meaning in our lives is that we recognize 00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:37.000 the inevitability of our death. We are mortal, 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:39.479 regardless of what you might believe about an 00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:42.880 afterlife. The truth is that our body here on 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:45.619 Earth, right here, right now, is limited, at 00:00:45.619 --> 00:00:48.259 least until we develop the technology to transfer 00:00:48.259 --> 00:00:51.280 our consciousness to some other biological or 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:55.320 mechanical bodies. I imagine... I imagine if 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:58.140 we were mortal, our attitudes towards what we 00:00:58.140 --> 00:01:00.960 do with our lives would differ, in the least 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:03.259 because we have more time, an endless supply, 00:01:03.460 --> 00:01:06.719 honestly, which changes how we plan for our future. 00:01:06.739 --> 00:01:10.319 But since we are mortal, we have the prospect 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:13.200 of death, the prospect that is present every 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:15.540 moment of our lives, even if we don't think about 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:20.079 it. That may be one reason to be interested in 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:22.629 the question of death. But there is, I think, 00:01:22.650 --> 00:01:26.609 another more personal reason. All human societies 00:01:26.609 --> 00:01:29.829 seem to have some set of practices or rituals 00:01:29.829 --> 00:01:36.609 centered on death. We feel deep within us a profound 00:01:36.609 --> 00:01:41.150 sense of loss. We cry, we grieve, we mourn, we 00:01:41.150 --> 00:01:44.150 suffer. I mean, some cultures might do this a 00:01:44.150 --> 00:01:46.069 little less and do something else, but it's fairly 00:01:46.069 --> 00:01:49.299 common, right? So death seems... in many ways, 00:01:49.340 --> 00:01:51.719 at least the way that we practice, you know, 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:53.819 have practices around death, seems like a bad 00:01:53.819 --> 00:01:56.560 thing. I mean, even when we honor and celebrate 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:00.200 the legacy of someone that we lost, it's with 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:04.920 a somber tone, right? Not with the kind of joyousness 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:07.439 you get maybe with a surprise birthday celebration. 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:11.159 Even if we recognize that death is inevitable, 00:02:11.479 --> 00:02:15.680 even when we know the death was coming, like 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.159 somebody was ill for a really long time and we 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:21.439 prepared ourselves for it, we still feel a deep 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:23.659 sense of loss and brokenness when it does come. 00:02:24.500 --> 00:02:28.759 We avoid death by maintaining good health, developing 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:33.639 medical technology. We try to keep death at bay 00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:36.500 for as long as possible. We see it as a symptom 00:02:36.500 --> 00:02:40.120 of a mental disorder if someone were to seek 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:43.000 out death, to want to die. The message that's 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:45.979 being sent seems very clear. It is good to live. 00:02:46.020 --> 00:02:51.379 It is bad to die. The badness of death seems 00:02:51.379 --> 00:02:57.000 even worse when it is not through natural causes, 00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:59.780 when the death is sudden, when it comes through 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:03.280 some accident or crime, when it was quote -unquote 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:05.860 before their time. And the younger the person 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:11.280 that died, the worse it seems. So again, on the 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:17.500 surface, death seems bad. I want to ask this 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:21.879 in earnestness, right? Like, why is it bad? Like, 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:26.219 if death is nothing more than just a reality 00:03:26.219 --> 00:03:30.060 of life, it's part of the circle of life, if 00:03:30.060 --> 00:03:34.539 death is inevitable, then why is it bad? I mean... 00:03:35.180 --> 00:03:38.659 We don't think it's bad the many, many centuries, 00:03:38.819 --> 00:03:41.719 millions of years that somebody did not exist 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:44.439 before their birth, right? So why are we mourning 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:48.639 them once they do pass away? And in the same 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:51.699 way that death comes to all, so does maturing, 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:54.740 right? Like, yet we don't mourn when our bodies 00:03:54.740 --> 00:03:57.520 change and grow into adulthood, at least. you 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:00.479 know, in the way that we do with death, right? 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:03.000 Maybe you get a little upset when your body's 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:05.379 changing in ways. I'm aging now, so, you know, 00:04:05.379 --> 00:04:09.120 sometimes I do mourn the loss of youthfulness 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:11.879 than might have once had, right? But no one cries 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:14.840 the way people do at funerals when an infant 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:19.180 becomes a toddler, right? But here's the thing. 00:04:19.220 --> 00:04:23.319 Death seeming bad also is a bit perplexing. It's 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:26.459 a little bit confusing when you acknowledge that, 00:04:27.830 --> 00:04:30.350 Living isn't all that it's cracked up to be, 00:04:30.449 --> 00:04:33.990 at least for some, right? I can't speak for everybody, 00:04:34.069 --> 00:04:36.290 but I do know that at least for some people, 00:04:36.329 --> 00:04:41.949 living just sucks, right? Living just sucks. 00:04:41.990 --> 00:04:44.089 Look, let me just speak from my own experience, 00:04:44.350 --> 00:04:48.649 right? I grew up in poverty. I'm not talking 00:04:48.649 --> 00:04:51.610 like, oh, I didn't have money to go ahead and 00:04:51.610 --> 00:04:53.910 buy nice things, kind of poor. No, no, no. I'm 00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:56.310 talking... Going around the neighborhood digging 00:04:56.310 --> 00:04:58.870 through trash for cans and bottles to sell so 00:04:58.870 --> 00:05:00.670 that we have food on the table kind of poor. 00:05:01.430 --> 00:05:05.069 I'm talking can't buy clothes at all, and we 00:05:05.069 --> 00:05:07.410 only wore whatever was donated to the church 00:05:07.410 --> 00:05:10.769 kind of poor. I'm talking, and this might seem 00:05:10.769 --> 00:05:13.829 a little crazy, but foraging for plants in the 00:05:13.829 --> 00:05:17.569 abandoned lots near my home kind of poor, right? 00:05:17.689 --> 00:05:21.980 This is to have food on the table. Aside from 00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:24.699 struggling to live, the shame, helplessness, 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:27.259 and the sense of injustice that I felt every 00:05:27.259 --> 00:05:30.500 day, it was unbearable, and it led to a deep, 00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:34.399 deep depression. Some of you who have experienced, 00:05:34.620 --> 00:05:39.120 you know, like a really serious depressive episode, 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:42.660 right? Like waking up each day was hard. Living 00:05:42.660 --> 00:05:46.899 became overwhelming. Suicidal ideations were 00:05:46.899 --> 00:05:50.810 normal, was a daily thing. And it became normal 00:05:50.810 --> 00:05:54.810 for a reason, because death seemed like a solution 00:05:54.810 --> 00:05:59.810 to a problem. The problem being living. Living 00:05:59.810 --> 00:06:02.810 was a problem, and the way to solve it was by 00:06:02.810 --> 00:06:07.069 ending the living. We often assume that it's 00:06:07.069 --> 00:06:10.689 better to live than to die, that as hard as life 00:06:10.689 --> 00:06:13.350 might be, living and all the experience that 00:06:13.350 --> 00:06:16.170 comes with staying alive will outweigh the bad, 00:06:16.370 --> 00:06:19.480 but... Honestly, that explanation makes absolutely 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:22.620 no sense to someone who is in a deep depressive 00:06:22.620 --> 00:06:25.660 state, who is regularly in a deep depressive 00:06:25.660 --> 00:06:30.660 state. If you came at me with that kind of line 00:06:30.660 --> 00:06:34.240 saying that, you know, even as hard as it is 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:36.279 for you, it's better for you to be alive than 00:06:36.279 --> 00:06:38.839 to be dead, I might have just punched you in 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:41.759 the face because I'd be so offended because it 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:44.040 tells me that you have no idea what it is that 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:47.720 I'm going through. Because the reality for me 00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:50.319 was that however bad death is, it couldn't have 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:52.720 been worse than what it is I was living through. 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:57.939 This is the reality for many. To try to argue 00:06:57.939 --> 00:07:01.500 that death is worse for people who are going 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:03.540 through something like this, who have been going 00:07:03.540 --> 00:07:04.699 through something like this for their entire 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:09.079 life, it's just a non -starter. Look, I'm not 00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:11.759 trying to make everyone miserable here. I'm simply 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:15.160 making a point. The default in our attitude towards 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:19.740 death is that it's bad. Yet, it's not clear why 00:07:19.740 --> 00:07:24.839 death is bad. It just seems to be something that 00:07:24.839 --> 00:07:30.160 we all assume is a bad thing. And maybe, I don't 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:33.360 know what's going on. It might be because a lot 00:07:33.360 --> 00:07:36.860 of the lives that we have encountered, maybe 00:07:36.860 --> 00:07:40.300 death is overall worse than living for that person. 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:45.480 But surely it doesn't take much to realize that 00:07:45.480 --> 00:07:47.579 there are going to be quite a few lives where 00:07:47.579 --> 00:07:51.139 you might think that living is honestly worse. 00:07:54.660 --> 00:07:59.120 And this matters because it matters for real 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:02.000 -life decisions that we as a community are making 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:06.240 collectively today. It wasn't long ago, at least 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:08.600 at the time of this podcast episode, right? It's 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:11.689 not... We're passing laws around the country 00:08:11.689 --> 00:08:14.810 in various places that give people the right 00:08:14.810 --> 00:08:17.810 to die. And this is a real discussion that's 00:08:17.810 --> 00:08:19.990 happening not just in the United States, but 00:08:19.990 --> 00:08:23.410 worldwide. Various countries are grappling with 00:08:23.410 --> 00:08:27.810 exactly what kind of, you know, active euthanasia 00:08:27.810 --> 00:08:31.769 they're willing to allow. And the reason for 00:08:31.769 --> 00:08:35.549 it is fairly simple. For some, like the terminally 00:08:35.549 --> 00:08:39.840 ill, that are suffering in pain every day, so 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:43.419 much so that life seems unbearable, they would 00:08:43.419 --> 00:08:47.799 rather just die. Living is worse than dying. 00:08:49.059 --> 00:08:52.039 You might think that, look, death is bad regardless. 00:08:52.340 --> 00:08:54.779 It is to be avoided as much as possible. But 00:08:54.779 --> 00:09:00.299 to assume that there's some inherent good to 00:09:00.299 --> 00:09:03.879 living and that there's an inherent bad to dying, 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:09.259 seems to not align with at least, I think, the 00:09:09.259 --> 00:09:12.259 way that people's intuition go in cases like 00:09:12.259 --> 00:09:16.519 determining where to draw the line with euthanasia 00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:21.320 or in allowing for just, let's just call it what 00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:30.159 it is, suicide. I'm going to have to decide at 00:09:30.159 --> 00:09:32.440 some point what I want to do towards the end 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:36.179 of my life. I could... dictate you know at least 00:09:36.179 --> 00:09:39.179 write down to some degree what the law allows 00:09:39.179 --> 00:09:43.039 me what i can do with end of life support people 00:09:43.039 --> 00:09:47.179 are facing these decisions you know all the time 00:09:47.179 --> 00:09:49.879 right people who are not just terminally ill 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:52.519 but people who are on life support should we 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:55.659 end life support what's the reason for ending 00:09:55.659 --> 00:09:59.009 life support People deciding whether or not to 00:09:59.009 --> 00:10:01.929 have an abortion because they found out that 00:10:01.929 --> 00:10:04.850 the fetus has some birth defect that is going 00:10:04.850 --> 00:10:11.210 to lead them to suffer and die. So might as well 00:10:11.210 --> 00:10:14.830 not prolong the living. That's part of the idea. 00:10:16.350 --> 00:10:19.669 These are real questions. And we're not just 00:10:19.669 --> 00:10:21.769 addressing them as individuals. Some of them 00:10:21.769 --> 00:10:25.370 we are. Unfortunately, some of us have to go... 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:28.340 through having to make these kinds of decisions, 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:31.279 whereas others don't. But we're also having to 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:33.580 make these decisions collectively as a society, 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:36.320 through policy, through voting, in a democratic 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:40.039 society anyways. We're passing laws to try to 00:10:40.039 --> 00:10:43.080 create better guidelines for what we as a society 00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:46.419 deem acceptable. And much of what's going to 00:10:46.419 --> 00:10:51.659 inform how people vote is going to be their attitudes 00:10:51.659 --> 00:10:56.679 towards death. So if you're going to make a decision 00:10:56.679 --> 00:11:02.240 that is so impactful in the lives of so many, 00:11:02.340 --> 00:11:05.799 you better have a good reason for figuring out 00:11:05.799 --> 00:11:08.539 why you're deciding one way or the other. If 00:11:08.539 --> 00:11:13.419 you're doing it based off of some unexplainable 00:11:13.419 --> 00:11:16.139 feeling or gut reaction you have, that's honestly 00:11:16.139 --> 00:11:19.080 not going to be good enough for me. I need to 00:11:19.080 --> 00:11:24.450 know exactly where you stand on... on death, 00:11:24.750 --> 00:11:29.590 on why it's bad, why it should be avoided, and 00:11:29.590 --> 00:11:34.450 when it might be acceptable. Because I'll be 00:11:34.450 --> 00:11:36.149 honest with you, it's going to also have a lot 00:11:36.149 --> 00:11:37.990 of implications for how we treat the living.