There has been, imo, a massive mischaracterization of jesus. (around 22:36) what was the thought process on that? I thought the reason jesus died was pretty well known.
selling out to chinese scams selling illegal stuff (those games are licensed, but you pay 20 bucks far all of them plus a game boy? come on) is not a good move
Tolkien in his literary universe, created two races: Elves, which were immortal till the end of the Earth, and Men, who lived on earth only a little while, but then departed the world to go elsewhere. You might think the Elves had the better deal, but they lived in a marred world which was prone to entropy, thus the Elves became wearier with each passing year. Whereas Men would only be on Earth a little while, and then escape beyond the circles of the world upon dying. A fallen world is no place to be an immortal. Tolkien was expressing the Christian ideal of the Resurrection, and that it wasn't just getting tossed into an afterlife, but a transformation of the soul to prepare it for the unfallen Kingdom of God.
@@theproplady Believing the bible is religous. Not accepting it is scientific. It is a hypothesis without evidence, and with a ton of evidence against it. The God of the Bible, and the stories of the Bible are clearly derived from earlier Ugaritic, Canaanite, and Semitic dieties. It is no more true then the Illiad, Theogony, or Baghvatigita.
@@thepropladyno, you can't just choose to belive it. Belief is not a choice, it's a compulsion achieved through evidence or convincing arguments. You have to be convinced to believe it is true
At a dark time in my life I went through a phase where I was fixated on WW1, I found it therapeutic to learn about what those people went through because it gave me hope that I could handle the relatively trivial problems I was having. That led me to the idea of approaching life heroically which has indeed helped me handle life better.
When I reached the age of 18 I fell into depression… so i started an apprenticeship as a cemetery gardener(in germany they are pretty much parks) … I learned that you could plant flowers on our ultimate destiny which got me the courage to live again
I lost my father suddenly at the age of 7 to a brain tumor. Seeing my childhood avatar of strength and courage waste away in a hospital bed was world-shattering for me and lead to intense anxiety and depression in my teens. It really wasn’t until I got more into history that I realized how grateful I should be to live in the current era and to not have my life robbed early on a battlefield or to famine (at least there being less of a chance, with current events I’m not so sure)
As a man who's broaching 50 who has faced death at many points in my life, I found this video to be one of the most important I've watched to this point. If I've learned anything to this point, it's that HUMAN life is a spectacular gift, and death is its price. It's totally worth the price of admission. As a father, my sincerest hope is that I can bestow virtue and value to my son. He, like so many others in his generation, will need those things in particular to survive the coming storm.
I'm 23 and scared. I can feel the change in the wind but have just enough knowledge to know I have no idea what's coming and all I can do if be the best Man I can be.
@@chardaskie I'm 35. By 23 I'd almost died several times my life has been a shit storm but i march on and im non-religious. My advice to you focus on bettering yourself mentally, physically, intellectually learn a library of skills not just new but old and strive for excellence and leaving something good behind. That's probably shortest way I can say it without going into a novel length comment.
A professor I know actually started teaching a course on Death and Dying starting back in 2021 as a sort of experiment during covid times. It's since become one of the most popular courses at her university with students filling up every seat in the class. People want to talk about these taboos but the venues to encourage discussion of them are so few. Thank you for making this video.
A similar thing happened at a religious university I attended 20+ years ago. The course dealt with death and other hard topics, and wasn’t popular…then 2 planes crashed into 2 buildings and suddenly everyone was taking theology electives. Our culture has made death and birth economic/industrial processes and as a result we lose track of our place in the chain of being. Pro tip from an old(er) dude: try DMT if you get a chance. It’s the lowest risk way to practice death and be forced to consider the nature of “spiritual” reality. It also makes you cooler to people impressed by that sort of thing 😅.
As a mathematician, who is also deeply religious, you made some really good points. For a long time I saw concepts to be defined by their negation. There can be no nice weather without dark clouds and rain, no health without disease. You also brought in some point I never actively thought about: we *need* to see the negation, the opposite to understand an object/concept. In my studies, when learning a new definition, a new theorem, a new rule, while reading it the first time I quite often believed to understand it. However when confronted with an exercise using this concept, I was quite often helpless at first. This inability vanished more often then not when seeing a negative example first. This gives me a much tighter crasp on these new ideas.
@@themanwiththeplan676 Christianity, officially I am catholic, however I see myself primarily as a Christian and I believe all the major churches belong to the same fold of Jesus Christus.
I think that negation can lead to gratitude and thus a more meaningful recognition of the good, but I don't think that the good requires the opposite to exist. I fell ill after being healthy, but my state of being healthy was not created by my future disease/sickness. As a panentheistic Hindu from India, I certainly do think that the world is ultimately interconnected, which is why the diverse elements cannot be seen in isolation. Mahatma Gandhi often stressed the need for unity. This is why, in spite of being a Hindu, he had this to say about Christ: "Jesus expressed as no other could the spirit and will of God. It is in this sense that I see him and recognize as the Son of God. And because the life of Jesus has the significance and the transcendence to which I have alluded, I believe that he belongs not solely to Christianity but to the entire world, to all races and people. It matters little under what flag, name or doctrine they may work, profess a faith or worship a God inherited from their ancestors." -Gandhi, M.K. (1955), My Religion, Compiled/edited by Bharatan Kumarappa, Ahmedabad: Navjivan Publishing House, p. 25 Namaste and love from India! I hope that love and peace prevail in the world! 🙏🇮🇳☮️☮️
I am a three combat tour disabled vet. I am with Viktor Frankl on this one. Simply: "The meaning of life is that you give it one." "Be Responsible" The actual quote: "“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” ~Viktor Frankl.
The "meaning of life" is a question only asked in atomized, postmodern societies. Life is inherently meaningful for people not living in countries where nobody belongs and nobody builds.
I’ve been watching your videos for about 2 years now but I think this is the first time I’ve ever commented on one. Im 20 years old and I find it incredible that someone as articulate and insightful as you is only older than me by a few years. Truthfully, it makes me question if I am where I am supposed to be for someone my age. This feeling made me anxious initially, but over time it morphed into a sense of curiosity and desire to think about the world in new ways. You have legitimately been one of the main reasons I have opened up to the world and tried to view topics in a new light. I started watching your channel because I really enjoyed alternative history, but these recent philosophy videos have been absolutely amazing. I won’t even claim they change my views all the time, but simply hearing about concepts that are so “foreign” to our generation and yet seem to strike a chord deep down is incredible. Thank you WhatIfAltHist, you truly are one of the greats on this platform.
I’d be careful when listening to this guy. I’m a history major, going on to study macro history. This guy loves to spit a lot of half truths and things he can’t verify to fill in the gaps of what we understand. Not to mention the guy just spits on university and academic institutions, having never been, having no understanding of critical analysis or how to cite a source. Literally look at his bibliography he just lists books. You’re supposed to at least give page numbers and the like so things can be fact checked.
@@luck3yp0rk93 Someone dumb enough to go to school under a history major is the last person I'm going to listen to. This is TH-cam, not an expert's panel, nor a classroom, he has full creative liberty to talk about anything he wants however he wants, the standards here are set by himself, not academia. He didn't have to cite any sources, but he did, and he did it in a way that caters to the average person. Everyone was taught how to cite a source, it doesn't make you special, nobody cares to use it since it's one of the worst things ever created, all it does is obfuscate information for the sake of feeling like you are smart or professional.
@@luck3yp0rk93no one can be 100percent right all the time , you have to be a God to do that but while his facts might be wrong most of the time , his theories and analysis are very much on point
@@sunnymodi4496 idk saying the fascist economy worked when it was actively crumbling under slave labour, saying the strong national identity of fascism was a positive despite it driving the world to world war twice, idk man. Not the brightest. I don’t blame him since yknow… he’s not a historian. He hasn’t studied the subject
When I was studying abroad, we had a few Californians studying with us. This topic came up-I think in the context of fiction. But I pointed out I wouldn’t want to live forever, my life is not even half way over by the numbers and a lot of the “turning points” I’ve experienced have left me a better person, but also tired. I think the accumulation of that weariness would be pure misery beyond the normal scope of a human lifespan. The Californian students, without missing a beat or having any humor in their voices basically said: “It’s only a matter of time before medicine has a break through. I want to live forever.” I was baffled at this, but just reflexively rejected that idea. It took me a year or so to articulate to myself why I had immediately felt that way; a lot of which was said in this video. I feel like people who want to live forever must have never truly lived because it’s hard and tiring and violent, but so, so worth it. Wanting to live forever, to me, is an admission that you’ve never taken on burdens or stood for something-your life is is just a meandering grey blob of dopamine hits. We need death and strife because it infuses life with purpose. The sun sets on us all and that’s a little sad, but we also have the unique choice to enjoy that beautiful sunset with the people who matter to us. That’s not so bad, not so bad at all.
I had a similar reaction to one of the various videos from some of the popsci crowd, specifically a series of videos about how humanity needs to somehow ascend past death by CGP Gray. In the final video of the series, Death is personified as an evil dragon perched atop a mountain which requires human sacrifice to satiate it. What's very telling is that the only people who are accepting of death are portrayed as "old fashioned religious leaders", which seems to show exactly how most of the modern western people seem to think that death is not just something that can be surpassed, but anyone who is okay with death, be it theirs or others, is some evil fudd.
You do not need death for propose. Isaac arthur has made a video about propose in post scarcity societies, which presumably in the future would not have aging people, and he has suggested plenty of ideas that don't require death. If anything, if you have the ability to live forever, then you have to worry about the heat death of the universe or entropy in general, not to mention all the things you could do between then and now. In the end, a life without death is not one without propose, and I wouldn't mistake your tiredness as a need to die.
I’ve been an EOD tech for about 11 years now and the subject of death is always an interesting one. The exhilaration you describe when skirting death is absolutely real, and something that I know many of my peers actively chase. It’s hard to give up. It also makes life less stressful. Our motto is “Initial Success or Total Failure.” The normal risks we take on the job make the risk and stress of regular life seem trivial and makes life so much more beautiful. I can enjoy the beauty in my wife and family, the quiet little things, and big steps in life, and know that I can move towards death with my head held high. Death isn’t what is scary; living a life paralyzed by fear and never doing anything is what truly terrifies us.
@@long-hair-dont-care88. You should read the 7 habits of effective people by Stephen r covey. He explains how the best way to live our lives is living in a principled way; 'the hero'. And he shows us how to restructure our world view to do it. It's worth a read.
Here’s a list of the top 3 things that help me understand death better: 1: The Egg, made by Kurzgesagt 2: Puss in Boots: The last wish, made by Dreamworks 3: This video, made by Whatifalthist If you want to comment about helping you understand death. :)
MiIIion doIIar baby reaIIy made me think deepIy about Iife, death and the meaning of both; I watched it in my Iate 10s/earIy 20s, it's a movie everyone shouId watch in my opinion
I was in the Army for a while and got deployed to combat zones a couple times. After I got out there was a period of time where I would get disturbing deployment themed dreams where I was in the 'presence of death' or surrounded by the 'risk of death'. Having had time to reflect upon these things now, I think that Death is a kind of 'master emotion' and I can well understand how some people personify it as an entity due to it's being such an overwhelmingly negative and saturating experience. It's the strongest emotion I've ever felt and I suspect all the other emotions are essentially derivatives of and subsequent to it.
5:51 I am an insane WWI buff and know a lot about the war and usually spend my disposable income on relics and books related to WWI which I gained a fondness of after trying to emulate to honor my history buff friend who died of suicide. That's not the point nor a flex, one particular obsession of mine has been researching my great-great-grandfather and his struggles as a doughboy in WWI. He was referenced very peripherally when I was a kid by my family but I was close with all his daughters, fuck the last time said daughters were with each other was probably with me. Also not the point. I have read that he with his company saw the first death in his regiment and a sniper, and how he had to help take a German machine gun nest. He sadly died of a very rare and painful disease before WWII ended. He kept an incredibly dark and sad poem in his bible when my family gave me his belongings 100 years later. Learning about him in many ways has made me a lot better of a person, I can't explain why or how but I feel like learning about him, his struggle, and his life, has made profound impacts on my life. I think it's because I became incredibly humble along with other of life's circumstances.
Since you are a WWI buff, what do you make of the fact that WWI technologies like spigot mortars, grenades, radios, etc. are perfectly available for the common citizen (a single trip to a hardware store or the purchase of a 3d printer can allow you to make them), why aren't they ever used in any meaningful way by the criminal class? In South America, a group called FARC has been building narco subs for the past 20 years. Why haven't they made torpedoes? The technology exists. It is over 100 years old. Why can't people leverage that in any way? It just seems to me like the vast majority of people are either disconnected, or dumb, and society exists as a way to force them to build such things - and in doing that, the creation of such weapons only benefits the people at the top of the society, and actively harms the people at the bottom (like people in 3rd world countries). When you realize this, then what is a citizen within a society supposed to do? Build your own society? I've tried to join several groups/organizations that profess to build up their members. None of them do. It's all just people siphoning off wealth from others to benefit themselves. I don't know how to proceed in life with the knowledge that I'm just a prole, and exist as a slave for other people. All options available simply don't benefit me (abandonment of society and becoming homeless, suicide, hedonism, etc.), and allow the people who have abused me to 'win.' What struggles from those dying men in WWI trenches even apply?
When I was 9, I was sleeping on the couch with my dad. He fell asleep without turning off the TV, while I couldnt fall asleep. There was a documentary about a Japanese teenager that was murdered. It made my child brain realise that death is real and unpredictable. It sent me into a depression until I started listening to Sabaton at 13. Listening to their songs made me realise that these heroes they wrote about didnt fear death. The line "We still remember your name, Karel Janoušek!" stuck with me and made me realise that the a hero is never forgotten and lives on eternally. Master Jan Hus, a Czech national hero, went against the church to protect the common folk from a morally corrupt institution. He knew full well his fate will be burning at a stake, but he didnt fear it and took the risk. Now he is, as I mentioned, a hero, one that is immortal now. I cant see anyone, not even myself, standing there at the tribunal in Kostice, still not fearing the fate of death and still standing there heroicly. Once a person like this exists again, standing heroicly against evil, we will know the West has recovered.
I remember driving one sunny day I was watching the trees as I drove by and seeing the shadows of the trees reveal itself as I drove by. I don’t know what it was in that moment but I suddenly had this intuitional knowing that everything I did in my life, everything that everyone did in their lives revolved around the fact they would die one day, and up until that moment the idea only laid in the back waters of my mind. I think that it’s quite interesting that you decided to bring this up. I feel like most people in general are afraid to talk about anything real or don’t even understand or choose to not even think about it. In a lot of ways it feels like the book Fahrenheit 451 has came true. To everyone reading this comment know truth, speak truth, and most importantly seek truth. Talk about something real in your lives don’t just garble on about a bunch of meaningless garbage and constantly chase after a hedonistic life.
People just don't do hedonism very well, that's the real problem. Self destructive decadence, lust for materialist tacky 'nouveau riche' showy nonsense and short term abuse leads to an unsatisfactory weak high. Seeking another's jealousy or respect is never it. Hedonism should be approached with long term sustainability in mind and risk/harm reduction as a rudder. Maximising bang for buck in a physical emotional and financial sense. Epic Poetry, fine spirit toasting, and comedic roasting to set ones psychological frame. then LSD, trance dancing to an apocalyptic cresendos like great waves breaking on your soul... then making love with a consenting adult! then all going for a swim as the sun rises no cigars , no cocaine, no Lamborghinis, no lies, no posing and posturing, no bullshit. Just sheer unadulterated brain slapping joy. Thats hedonism my friend.
Well the thing is until we are dead we are alive. We can't really understand what death is so we sort of blindly follow what everyone else is doing not realizing that the sheer infinity of nonexistent cancels out everything we do in existence.
I feel fortunate that the religion I was raised with (Islam) has a strong focus on understanding and accepting death. Since childhood I was taught that death is not only inevitable but can come at any time and we should live this life in a way that has the most permanent positive impacts on the people and the world around us because the effects of our actions (and our offspring, like you say) are all that will remain when we die. It's also reinforced over and over again in weekly Friday sermons as it's so easy to forget about especially in today's world. This video is so refreshing to see since as you mention, modern Western society is so focused on material life and avoiding thinking about death. Throughout my life there have been very few people I have come across outside of my family and faith who actually understand and accept death. I am so glad I found your channel and hope our paths cross some day. Keep up the excellent work.
Good one R. The trick I had to master was how to pass on 'meaning' to my two girls, being an agnostic science teacher myself. Agnosticism helped in that the search for deity/dogma made me very well read and also helped to set my moral compass. From that point I endeavoured to be unfailingly honest to them at all times, and loyal to their continued welfare. I think most importantly, when they reached an age to understand it, and reiterating it every few years, I gave each of them an explicit commitment that for the rest of my life, I would always be there when they called, wherever in the world that is, I would back them up and get them out of any trouble, and I would [explicitly] take harm in defence or offence to the point where I would give my life for theirs. Being explicit on this point is what I think hammered home the 'deep meaning' for me here. I can't neglect to say that this honesty and frankness extends to telling my daughters when I think they're wrong. I think everyone needs to know when someone thinks they're wrong, especially on morality stances. One may maintain ones stance, but at least they know an alternate viewpoint. Much like yourself I foresee financial hardship, physical inconvenience, pain and suffering, resource constraints and possible/likely regional famine. And like you I see this in the not distant future. To make meaning from this scenario I have offered safe-haven to all extended family [no exceptions] and close friends, to a large, isolated and sustainable [getting there] property. In that way my job is to be shepard and protector of those that are kin, and those that I think are good, worthy people. Making meaning I think can be a hard thing, except when one's goals are to give, even something as little as one's time.
I never felt any joy after any life-threatening situations: if it was my fault I usually felt something like shame in a 'that would be an extremely dumb way to die' fashion, otherwise I got angry at people who are responsible for putting me at risk. On the opposite, recovering from a sickness/surgery/trauma (whether physical or mental) consistently feels amazingly invigorating for me. So I can relate to this video merely partially.
then again he is a self admitted PTSD ridden neurotic wreck in a frantic search for meaning with the limited faculties he has. so take what he says with a hefty grain of salt.
I feel shame when i think of past moments but i didn’t feel anything at the time cause i was so out of touch with reality thinking i was invincible and that’s what ultimately brings the shame now
I would say i do feel joy in my near death experience, when i come close to being in a car crash it inevitably puts a huge smile on my face at a mminimum or i may even scream of joy, although i do not seek the adrenaline rush of death. It's similar to soldiers screaming of joy or laughter "fu** yeah baby!!!" Or something similar, when bullets whistle over their heads... I don't know why i feel like that though
Philosophy yes. His family structures around the world was fantastic. But his modern dating video was garbage just based on his own specific experience. Not all of his advice is worth taking.
@@jstnrgrs that's one of the only videos of his I haven't seen. That and the origins of communism video. Kinda glad I didn't see much interest in the topic.
I think rather than death itself, it's the concept of scarcity as a whole that is what drives everything. Death is one such example of that (the scarcity of your life span), but you can also see it in many other areas such as economics. And, as you mentioned, when you have infinite of anything, you tend to appreciate it significantly less.
I think you have given the perfect explanation for the modern 'nanny state' where the government encourages people to live as safely as possible. However, safety can also mean boring, and that's why my generation (Gen Z) is so depressed all the time. Everyone is scared to talk to each other, well making friends and learning to know the people around you is the greatest journey a human can have. The lack of purpose also comes from not accepting that we'll die, so we need to do something before our limited time on this marble is over. I'm into politics, and I'm always arguing to measure the fun factor in policy. We can try to ban every dangerous thing, but that doesn't make anyone happy. There is this video from Gerbert Johnson called 'Why Young Men Aren't Growing Up' that describes the difficulties that come with living in a nanny state.
I only realized it recently. But yeah as Gen Z I have a huge fear of just about everything. Fear is literally always in the back of my mind. There are others my age who just seem to not have this. But I am always convinced the worst outcome will happen. I always try and prepare for it. I'm always baffled how people just charge in and sometimes it works and sometimes they make a mistake that a minite of thinking would have prevented. Anxiety rules my life and I guess others. There is and can never a solution. I'm still living and have great things in life. But I am definitely "meek" in someway and can't stand confrontation or whatever with others because I just can't handle it. My brain just never got the memo.
one of your best videos ! been a fan of yours for maybe a year. been travelling the world for almost a half year. been drinking way too much but it's been so beautiful and I'm so lucky and thankful. I've always chose Heroism and watching this video helps me understand other ways of thinking. greetings from Kotor !
There can be more to life extension than just an "impossible fantasy". To me, this faint hope makes me strive to have the best possible physical and mental health and being as productive as possible so that I'll have enough money to make use of whatever advancements may appear. This (as an atheist) is kind of my religion and gives me great fortitude to endure difficulties in life and it gives my life meaning and clear goals.
And I'll do everything in my power to prevent life extension tech from ever seeing the light of day. The rich should not live forever in their gilded mansions while the poor scramble for whatever scraps are leftover
With advancing age, one is forced to confront it's inevitability. My best friend, Lynn, died a few months ago. While being able to meet with her other friends before her funeral, I was paralyzed to attend her funeral that weekend. I found comfort with the group, alternately crying and laughing, as we shared our good and bad times with her. Having trouble coping with the loss, possibly a guilt hangover for not having been at the funeral. Coping in a similar way to my husband's death.... Couldn't show up. Her absence was sudden, yet not unpredictable. Depression, addiction and lack of judgement created conditions for death by misadventure. Agorophobic, she sustained a fatal head injury going out alone, and fell in a public bathroom. When things are at their worst, doing service for others ALWAYS helps me. Having a son and devoted partner has sustained me through some awful times.
I think part of the reason our agnostic/atheistic society can't have death in our lives is because we dont have a story for it. That doesnt necessarily mean religion, although thats how we've solved that problem to date
He’s right on the death part. Snow boarding and mountain biking are my fav ways. I always played sports growing up but nothing beats tearing down a mountain in between trees over rocks and jumps while needing to be absolutely sure of ur line and landing spots or ur taking a nasty nasty fall and for sure some type of injury. Snowboarding is more chill but none the less dangerous due to higher speeds.
16:14 I think viewing Life as dealing with the problem of Death has an intrinsic Christian bias. In other cultures where the nature of Death is understood differently, there are another 3 problems that some cultures see as more central: Suffering (Buddhist), Change (Islamic) and Causality (Hindu).
Yes, Abrahamic faiths and Christianity in particular sees death as a problem not something that is an inherently good thing and part of life in a positive sense. The fact that the point in faith is that our Creator will pull us out of death and towards life should be noted as it’s the most important thing, defeating death
I'd like to see you do a video on the French Revolution and its parallels with the modern day. It has a lot of lessons that are key to stuff happening today.
When you started talking about the beauty of art in relation to death it made me think back to the amazing scene from Doctor Who where the Doctor brings Van Gogh to an art museum in the modern day and everyone is packing the room to see his art while the curator describes him as the best artist. If you know you know.
This was quite an intricate and profound video. I do agree that balance is an indispensable aspect of our reality. At the same time, I am not inclined to believe that positive facets of life (such as love and beauty) need something negative to exist. The existence of the negatives could aid us in appreciating what we already have, but this does not mean that the good requires the bad. You don't need to hate the world in order to love your family. Ultimately, it is life that drives life. Namaste and love from a Hindu from India! 🙏🇮🇳☮️☮️
Rudyard, thank you for making this video. The topic of death is something that I am always thinking about and knowing that i'm not the only one thinking about it keeps my mind at ease.
Saw some other positive comments so I might as well.. Your videos really do hit hard with what I'm feeling and generally the problems we're facing. I'm not sure how they'll be defeated but I appreciate that someone at least has perspective in the crazy world we're in, I'm around your age but I have a lot more to learn. I think many people may also fear death because of a lack of fulfillment, too much focus on meaningless things. Our society places so much value on useless and addictive activities that only seek to worsen our mental health. I tend to feel bad for our world after I watch your content, because it really is sobering once you pull away the curtain.
Just when I accepted my mortality, and didn't even care about it much for a few years, two things happen. In November 2022 my mom dies, and then after that GPT gets released. First horrible event leads me to do what I've done since I was a kid to cope, and that is to do philosophy and try to find some hope in it. There I realize that something that didn't really help me much, but it did confuse me enough that I can't even be depressed about death. I realized that we can never really die, or better said we can never stay dead. Nature created me at least once already, so there is no reason to think it won't do so again. People often say that when you die you experience exactly what you experienced before you were born, and I agree. The thing is, I didn't experience anything as far as I know, meaning that time before I was created really flew by for me. That's exactly what happens after you die. Things move on, but for you(whatever that is), time without you existing will just happen in an instant, and you will be created again. To say this isn't true is to claim that you are so special, that not even nature can recreate you after trillions of years, which sounds crazier than afterlife to me. The second thing is GPT. I completely forgot that AI is a thing, and I accepted my mortality even though I dreamed about life extension since I was a kid. However, LLM's reminded me that a lot can happen in the next few decades, and we might even figure out how to cheat death. Truth is, I am not even sure if I want this, as I am afraid we would be messing up some fundamental process that we don't understand well enough, but I can totally see radical life extension being on a horizon. Unless AI shortens our lives instead, which is probably more likely. The last thing that makes me unable to worry about death is the possibility of solipsism. I don't know if solipsism is true or not, but I can't prove it isn't, and thinking that everyone else is conscious is just a convenient assumption my part. If it's true implications are huge. It would mean that I am yet to experience anyone dying at all. If I can't prove that other people are conscious, then I can't prove that anyone has ever stopped being conscious(died) either. Crazy, but just the possibility of this being true makes me relaxed as I know there is no point in worrying about death.
Like it or not, spirituality suits you better than politics. It just fit with the style of video you make and your insightful imagery/analogies/metaphors. Plus, I like it when you sound more calm and take your time to talk peacefully.
The only critique I have on his first statement that we have no control over where or when we die: we have control to embrace death in sacrifice at any time, just not denying death indefinitely.
I have talked to some of my friends of these theme (death). Some just tried to avoid this reality and some want to live very hedonistic with the excuse of "I only live once", those answers made me feel pity for them. Do not get me wrong, I think about my own mortality and indeed gives me anxiety, but to live avoiding the fact or a hedonistic life are worse than death.
"but to live avoiding the fact or a hedonistic life are worse than death." Why? Death will find us anyway sooner or later, why not just avoid it? If it comes , it comes.
@@Scout887 death will come to you no matter what so is better to embrace the fact with a well thought out philosophy. This philosophy will guide your actions in a way that you can say at your last moments I had a life that was worth and helpful to others. I don't believe a person who avoids this facts can say this. They for sure avoid difficult choices on a daily basis. The hedonistic ones hurt people around them, they make other people miserable. That is why is worse than death.
Having just spent 2 days in a hospital's intensive care unit, can confirm it provides a moment of clarity. I literally saw a person die while I was there and it brought home the fragility of existence.
Man, I'm a handicap and I consider it a superpower for the same reasons the video went through in the end. Being one makes death a much closer acquaintance than most people, which translates in me (because of my upbringing) a lack of concern to anything that poses a physical of mental threat, I just go and do all the while laughing at it like it's a cosmic sarcastic joke God is making. Only the punchline is that I actually follow through and end up farther than anyone with similar conditions because it takes a fuckton to make me stop. Nowadays people think they need the perfect conditions to operate perfectly, when its actually the opposite. Want to know how far can you run? Break your leg. Want to know how fast you can learn a topic? Get anxiety. Want to know how to live life the best way possible? Die.
A lot of what you bring to the table are things I only felt on the inside of my brain or in people of the past. I appreciate that you've been able to articulate what many of us have felt and brought a sense of connection for it.
“The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.” Homer
Life isnt something to be planned out, its to be experienced. When one faces death, they learn the truth of themselves, will you spend all you have made in life in a sick bed begging for more time or will you roar your defiance at death, yet the rarest die with a smile and when the meet the end they treat it like a friend who has walked with them the whole journey and will bring them home.
I find it refreshing that as I have got older the wisdom of my parent and their ancestors seem to become more and more relevant to me. I might not have understood at the time - indeed as a teenager and perhaps early 20 something i definitely did not, but now I see truism abound. Some of the wisest things I ever had said to me was deal with a problem if you can, and if not don't worry about it, and it's not what you know it's who you know. The latter can be interpreted in many ways but certainly I am blessed by having good friends who can not only agree with me but at times offer different points of view or different angles to see things at. They are at different age profiles, backgrounds and political stances - and I respect them all whether i agree wholly or at least partially. And if it is the latter I know their intentions are good if nothing else. Certainly I can see that you have to give people breathing room and allow mistakes which they can learn from. There seem to be fewer people who have an overarching view of the world where factors interact and produce outcomes. Instead people appear to be atomised and just believe what their newsfeed is telling them, depending on what tribe they identify with. Certainly keeping people under the cosh and hemmed in like a cog in a machine either through over tight corporate norms or indeed dictatorships either through family or society is always ultimately a mistake. This is because people are either unable to cope once that scenario is gone, or rebel. Normally in either circumstances the outcome is good for no one.
Being a Venezuelan living in CDMX I can say that when I see any American it is like seeing a little squirrel, they look so fragile and delicate that I treat them with such kindness, because I see them as very innocent, as many do not know the real world outside of their bubble country, not all of them are like that, but a great majority is noticeable, including the one who narrates this video, when I see him, I see his innocence, he does not know evil. For this reason, in part, I am grateful to have been born in a country as harsh as Venezuela. I was able to see the destruction of a country from its very foundations from a young age and come out stronger
as someone who is born in Turkey and still witnesses how the countries own Culture and Religion is being manipulated against to hypnotize the people away from how the current goverment and leadership is sucking the blood out of my country turning it to a lifeless husk waiting to be collapsed after the upcoming Great Earthquake of İstanbul i understand how you feel... and honestly i feel the same way, since its kind of only sensible choice i can make in this situtation, accept that in the end most things are out of your control and all you can do is to keep yourself and those you care about safe by being strong for both your and your loved ones sake
This is a very profound video. Hits very close to home for many reasons. It has motivated me because i see mu flaws and fears exposed in this video. Now j see that i need try to socialize and find a woman to start a family with. And thats exactly what i am going to do. Thank you
What timing for this video...I was pondering to make a simillar video of my own while heading home from the gym but listening to this laid down a solid foundation. Yesterday, I sadly had to witness the cremation of my father who passed away last week. Having lost my mother already as a child, I always considered myself some sort of preconditioned to dealing with death, with the passing of my Grandmother in 2019 after a long stint of illness feeling like a kind of trial for what I'm going through now. However, realising out of the blue that you have no more parents at 24 years old is understandably very daunting. Being a young man already dealing with the existential dread of sustaining himself, I am kind of surprised how much determination and drive I was able to pull out of my circumstances. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but if it somehow equates to the mentioned sense of heroism mentioned in the video, I'd say the ability to coexist with grief and dread and to convert it into passion to do the best you can do with the card one has been dealt, that is the closest thing I can see to that. I'm still wondering how I am not falling into despair over something so massive, considering I have had times with a more nihilistic mindset. While I did...indulge a tiny little bit in the more hedonistic side of life for a few days to get my mind of it temporarily, with such things moderation is key. Either way, nice video and nice change of pace, great to see you mixing it up a bit!
I've had a few near-death experiences, and I haven't felt any differently after any of them. Life just continued on, and the most that I felt was bewilderment at how little the experience affected me, knowing that I was probably supposed to be feeling something in that moment but realizing that I just didn't. Am I okay?
I've had the same experience. Had multiple extremely close calls, but afterward I always just felt vacant. It wasn't uniquely exhilarating or life-affirming, it was hollow -- almost mundane.
If the near-death experience actually touches or impacts you, you feel damaged by it and broken. What Rudyard describes is what Malcolm Gladwell calls a "remote miss", where the person's baseline tolerance increases as they lose fear.
I had this exact same revelation not even less then a week ago. The fear of death is source of all evil, sin, and anxiety. But it might also be the source of all good.
I had this experience reading the manga Vinland Saga. A viking warrior died a violent dead and we have the experience of knowing his finals thoughts. He did not see Valhalla. Many comments on the page I read were cheering as they found validation for not believing in any after life and they felt smarter than this character. They do not understand the power of religion, this guy fought a lot of enemies to the end. Meanwhile we the enlighted with no religion can't do basic shit without anxiety. I do not endorse violent religions but you can't deny the power of believing in afterlife. The vikings did incredible things and even more incredible things after they started believing in Christ.
This is quite possibly the best video on TH-cam.... thanks for your amazing work I'm 44 years old and I'm shocked at your incredible knowledge of the world and the humans in it at such a young age.
I once wrote a fantasy novella with a mix of Tolkien themes and Greek theology. The original sin of the world was the creation of man. The deities held power over the elves because smites were a real threat. For man, it wasn't nearly as much so. Man was able to overthrow the deities. It was terribly written and I'd be embarrassed for anyone to read it, but I think the premise deserves more attention.
Yes death can make life more precious if one comes out of the experience relatively unscathed, but on the other hand if one is in for a lifetime of pain & suffering, not so much.
I spent over a decade in the Navy and saw more death than I thought I would. I have been in dangerous situations where I knew I would die, and then I didn't. Now I have children and I deeply value every moment. Every coo from my baby, every little thing, like seeing her sit up for the first time. Its all magical.
Another TH-camr I watch refers to our relationship to death as 'mortality salience' and it's a phrase I really like. Our relationship to death colors so much of how we live life and react to it. We do so much to make ourselves as immortal as possible be it through art, memes, or progeny and people hardly ever talk about it.
@@matsuringo24 I suppose some Stardusk fans did pay attention to Jolly Heretic Dutton. I enjoy the Jolly Heretic for explaining why Idiocracy is happening worse than Mike Judge ever portrayed it.
I always need to remember how I would like to go, standing up. My depression is killing me, I am medicated and I am perpetually lonely. But I don't fear death. Even if I was staring it down several times in my life.
I’ve been reading Maps of Meaning for the better part of ten years and feel like I’m just starting to touch down on the core concepts or understanding how to integrate any of it into my philosophy/perspective of existence. Definitely Petersons best book, although I’d say sort of apples to oranges consider the rules for life series is something condensed and spun for the masses in an effective way. Maps of Meaning is more or less an Ivy League funded textbook. It’s complex as any modern literature has ever been, and it takes background in many areas to really tie it all together. A background that has personally taken me a decade to culminate some competence in. I’m typically someone who tests for a high learning agility. It’ll probably be another ten years of accumulating additional background knowledge from a variety of different core disciplines before I’ll be confident in claiming I truly comprehend the value behind literature such as this. To think that many men like Peterson through history have achieved something similar through the work in the world and leaving a mark history can’t forget even when it tries makes me feel like an absolute worm lol. All that said, I believe it is death is what compels me to seek knowledge with a radical passion in life. I think there’s immortality in there somewhere. To learn all that I can about consciousness and reality so I might one day make sense of it all. To live immortal through some great opus left behind in the world that might help other people draw the same knowledge which might lead to a good life and being someone of value to others. It’s such an insurmountable undertaking, but none the less death compels. This was a great video and anyone involved should absolutely be proud of it.
This is definitely your best video yet. I have watched your video's for a while, but this is the first time that you spoke about something that I knew a lot about. I have always struggled explaining some of these subjects to people and having them grasp even a bit of the essence of the concept. But in this video you explained all of that and more much more efficiëntly. Thank you for this video. I have learned a lot. Again.
Thanks for this. This truly is your most important video. I held back tears like three times during the video. The quotes and ideas explored really hit me mehn. Especially because death is a concept we're all aware of, but we rarely talk about. And because for my whole adult life and my late teens I've wondered what the point of life is. I can't say I understand what the meaning or puropse of life is, but seeing it as something I can look back on at death's door, and smile at is a most worthy goal if you ask me.
I just have to say, THANK YOU for making these videos. I've been watching your channel for a couple of weeks now and it's so refreshing to see someone who actually tries to tackles the complex factors that make up our reality. I thought I was just the crazy one, thinking about all things that no one else seemed to care about. A lot of people can't face the reality we live in and turn to hedonism just to stay alive. THANK YOU again Whatifalthist, you have shined a light into my life. :)
I truly wonder if people think about this, let alone speak about it with others they trust. I think everyone approaches death with the variety that we live. Speaking for others would be insane, so its easier to do so for myself. Context matters, and nothing starts in a vacuum. I've never been married, no kids, and just turned 47 a couple weeks ago. I have an associates in applied sciences degree that I never got to use (ITT Tech, and they were shut down). The moment I realized my own mortality was six years ago, I got diverticulitis (an infection of the lower intestine/colon). I barely made it to the hospital in time, as I was pending a rupture that would have most certainly killed me. I spent 8 days in the hospital and lost over 25 lbs. One of those day, a chaplain came by and spoke with me. I'm an ardent atheist, and try to be respectful of religious people, but I won't give in. I talked about my situation and current life, and it got to the point when the chaplain asked me "What do you have to live for?" I could have taken this one of two ways: 1) If I have nothing to live for, why go on? 2) Find something to live for. I would eventually chose the latter. The next week, Congress was voting to overturn the Affordable Care Act (aka 'Obamacare'), and thanks to Sen. McCain, it was not repealed. Even though I'm an Army veteran, I didn't go to the VA hospital because they were further away and my status wasn't current. If my condition was deemed 'pre-existing' and my insurance was null & void (paid via work), then I would have to pay my medical bills without insurance. I was living in a mobile home, barely making it from paycheck to paycheck. I was so overcome with dread, I actually sold all of my books to a used book store, packed up my undershorts, t-shirts & socks to be thrown away, and placed a loaded pistol on my coffee table, pending the vote. A month later, I had surgery, and they took 4 in. of my colon. In the end, my bills were over $142,000, but with insurance, I only paid $6700. Medical bankruptcy was NOT an option I would live with. To come to terms with death, you need to first look at your life. I took up stoicism, and it guided how I thought & felt about my life, the world, other people, etc. For the longest time, all I ever wanted was to be a good husband and a great father. Addressing the issue that would never happen was the greatest emotional challenge of my life. I have little family, few friends, and almost no impact on the lives of others. Now, I'm living in a very nice home, make enough money to get most of the things I've always wanted, and making plans for international vacations. The goal now is to die as I have lived. I think that's a good way to go. Thanks for reading. Have a great day!
@adamguy33 Which God? Yours? My folks? My ex-girlfriend's? The one that has the most worshippers in my area? It doesn't matter. If there is one, and he/she respects my reasoning, then things might be amicable. If he/she is angered by my disbelief, then they're not a God worth worshipping. That's all I have to say about it.
@@ebhark2012 all religions could be wrong , but they cant all be right. What is the truth is the question that demands an answer. Many people believe in many different gods and they could all be wrong and just believe in the imaginations of someone long past dead or in their own current imaginations of some god or higher power. But our own imaginations or those of others doesn't make something true or not thats just logical. Jim Wallace is a really successful cold case detective who was figured on dateline and third generation atheist. He used his skills to see if there was any validity to any of the religions and if there was a God and what he found out was pretty astonishing. Look him up.
@adamguy33 I think you focused a little too much on projecting your personal beliefs onto others. I gave my own perception, based on my own experiences, regardless of what others thought or felt. How we deal with death is as we deal with life. Everyone is going to be different. Religion is a reaction, a response to how one wants to deal with life & death, but isn't a requirement.
I remember learning about how WWI was the worst conflict in human history. After experiencing war and combat in Afghanistan I went back and studied WWI to help myself deal with my own problems. The things the men in WWI had to do are unthinkable today
Great Video. As someone in my 50s I've started to look at how many good productive years I have left. I've decided that I need to maximize my efforts and really enjoy my life and appreciate it for what it is. I just went camping in Zion National Park in Utah, a staggeringly beautiful place, and it really brings me happiness to bring my teenagers there so we can experience it together and challenge ourselves with memorable adventures (like hiking up the Narrows for the first time, which was really cool). I do this now and enjoy it now because I know in 20 years doing a hike like that will probably not be possible for me. It's not hedonism, but just enjoying what we have living life to the fullest and being happy to be able to experience it. Death and decline is hard to look at, but I am determined to really love the time I have left!
I agree with this. While I was in the Navy, I had a near death experience. It was an eye opener. Made me a survivor and appreciate life as is. Now, I travel the world to know the people in the world. USA is small compare to the rest of the world. Near death experience can make a person look at the world at a different light. Some of those that are not well equipped to cope are granted PTSD. While those who are prepared themselves for death and accepts it will recover and appreciate life.
Good video 👍 keep it up. I'm pretty sure I have bipolar disorder undiagnosed. I know I have family on both sides with it, and I have seemingly uncontrollable and logically unexplainable extreme ups and downs. My latest "explanation" has been the overstimulation of my mind and my lack of self control. ...so I stopped watching TV, I don't play video games, don't watch pornography, and I have stopped watching TH-cam (new videos from your channel being my one exception. I figured your videos require a longer attention span and are less frequent, and I love the content.) I'm 21 years old, we're roughly the same age. I'm a department manager at a grocery store, and it's good to see someone from my generation who sees value in working and building something. I work a lot, and I think of it as a privilege to be able to do so. You and I and others of course will dig and find truth and meaning in this strange ill time.
The trend to discredit you grows. Please meet it with humility, you are young, but you are exceptional in a way people twice your years may not claim. Listen, learn, and continue to grow. Let criticism forge your will and your abilities. Professing answers, well that is difficult for the wisest and most educated among us. Instead I suggest you continue to open doors to more questions. Always search to challenge your own understanding and that of others. You can't teach a man, but you can help him start to ask questions. The universe will do the rest.
You made me wait until the very end of the video. But the fireflies analogy and the story with your dad about being the only good one in the room, priceless. You just helped a big piece of life fall right into place. Well done sir, well done. And thank you
Rudyard, I could tell you were in a dark period since in an earlier video you were stating one of your vices as Kratom. People only need that stuff to numb the pain of life. Hope you're doing better
I just watched this video because I was not in an emotional state when it came out due to my wife's death. This style of thinking is essentially what I've come up with on my own as a young child who was excluded as "weird" but have never been able to articulate to others how I think and why I've been able to keep raising my daughter with as little help as I've asked for. This issue is most definitely at the forefront for modern society, and it's something that I've pushed my younger family members to focus towards.
Rudyard this is your best video I’ve ever watched! Brilliant! Resonant! TRUTH! Memento mori!!!! God bless you, man! I’m praying for you as you emerge from all your late rough patch!
great video, you are really a inspiration for my videos, I've also learn a lot from your content as a current student! thank you for all the advice it really impact a lot of people, i have a suggestion for you / you should create a patron or paid content in which you show your transcripts and how you build your videos, i will love to get a insight on this
TBH this is the most brilliant video you put out there, pretty sure never commented on another video you made... but man, having someone remind that I am just a man and I will die is something I needed
"The meaning of life is to find the courage to throw yourself into the abyss, and then you realize it's a feather bed." -Terence McKenna. Founder of the "Stoned Ape theory" mentioned in this video. If you want a powerful teacher of Optimism and hope and happiness, listen to the works and life of Terence McKenna. Godspeed, Rudyard. This video may be a deeper calling for your incredible talents and seems to be the natural evolution and progression of the themes and purposes of your previous videos. Liked and shared.
26:22 As someone who works with machines for a living, I can tell you that text wall has it backwards. The machines don't work the way intellectuals think they do. So really machines are an incredibly appropriate model for our age, we just don't educate ourselves to understand it because our models are built by those "nerds" you defined earlier.
This video reminds me of Achillies’s dialogue with Briseis, “Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again”
This Is a Brilliant and Even Beautiful Video!!!! My Late Father Had Two Last Lessons To Teach Me After I Worked Up Enough Courage To Open His Bedroom Door: 1- Someday Someone Will Be Staring Into YOUR Dead Eyes; 2- Yet In Death There Is Peace, There’s Nothing To Be Afraid Of!!!!
One existential question I have for myself is this: Am I not afraid to die, or is my brain still unable to register the fact that I will one day cease to be?
Thought there would have been reference to Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death". Fearing death and meeting death face to face are two different things. Good thoughts, keep learning and growing from a searching spirit and philosophy.
The movie White Noise with Adam Driver explores the concept of mortality and dealing with the knowledge of death in one of the most beautiful ways I've seen in film. 10/10, everyone should watch it.
![BOWKYLION - วิงวอน (ex-change) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cLdnZWDaO-w/mqdefault.jpg)
Link to Power up Paradise to buy incredible video game phone cases. Use the code WHATIF5 -power-up-paradise.com/discount/WHATIF5
Game boy case for $40, that’s insane.
A good day.
WHERE DO YOUR VIDEOS GO!?!?!? YOU UPLOAD THEM, THEN THEY DISAPPEAR
There has been, imo, a massive mischaracterization of jesus. (around 22:36) what was the thought process on that? I thought the reason jesus died was pretty well known.
selling out to chinese scams selling illegal stuff (those games are licensed, but you pay 20 bucks far all of them plus a game boy? come on) is not a good move
Tolkien in his literary universe, created two races: Elves, which were immortal till the end of the Earth, and Men, who lived on earth only a little while, but then departed the world to go elsewhere. You might think the Elves had the better deal, but they lived in a marred world which was prone to entropy, thus the Elves became wearier with each passing year. Whereas Men would only be on Earth a little while, and then escape beyond the circles of the world upon dying. A fallen world is no place to be an immortal. Tolkien was expressing the Christian ideal of the Resurrection, and that it wasn't just getting tossed into an afterlife, but a transformation of the soul to prepare it for the unfallen Kingdom of God.
The problem is when you realize the world isn’t fallen. It just is. Life just is. And then it isn’t.
@@levongevorgyan6789 Disagree with you there, but then again, that's a religious belief; a point of faith. You can choose to believe it or not.
@@theproplady Believing the bible is religous. Not accepting it is scientific. It is a hypothesis without evidence, and with a ton of evidence against it. The God of the Bible, and the stories of the Bible are clearly derived from earlier Ugaritic, Canaanite, and Semitic dieties. It is no more true then the Illiad, Theogony, or Baghvatigita.
@@thepropladyno, you can't just choose to belive it. Belief is not a choice, it's a compulsion achieved through evidence or convincing arguments. You have to be convinced to believe it is true
Also the big bad, Morgoth was the one who tricked humanity into fearing death instead of welcoming it
At a dark time in my life I went through a phase where I was fixated on WW1, I found it therapeutic to learn about what those people went through because it gave me hope that I could handle the relatively trivial problems I was having. That led me to the idea of approaching life heroically which has indeed helped me handle life better.
I relate to this on a deep level.
Read Berserk
Usually I watch videos on the Bronze Age Collapse for the same reason
This so me
Oh me too it was senior high school mine was ww2. Getting up at bed feels like D-Day
When I reached the age of 18 I fell into depression… so i started an apprenticeship as a cemetery gardener(in germany they are pretty much parks) … I learned that you could plant flowers on our ultimate destiny which got me the courage to live again
❤❤❤
Talmud status?
@@letterofthelaw2567 Denounced!
I lost my father suddenly at the age of 7 to a brain tumor. Seeing my childhood avatar of strength and courage waste away in a hospital bed was world-shattering for me and lead to intense anxiety and depression in my teens.
It really wasn’t until I got more into history that I realized how grateful I should be to live in the current era and to not have my life robbed early on a battlefield or to famine (at least there being less of a chance, with current events I’m not so sure)
wild how it all comes down to our ancestors shaming us into living a better life
As a man who's broaching 50 who has faced death at many points in my life, I found this video to be one of the most important I've watched to this point. If I've learned anything to this point, it's that HUMAN life is a spectacular gift, and death is its price. It's totally worth the price of admission. As a father, my sincerest hope is that I can bestow virtue and value to my son. He, like so many others in his generation, will need those things in particular to survive the coming storm.
I'm 23 and scared. I can feel the change in the wind but have just enough knowledge to know I have no idea what's coming and all I can do if be the best Man I can be.
Your son will inevitably suffer and die because of your immaculate decision making
@@chardaskiei feel the same at 27. Trying not to feel like a doomsday nut though at the same time lol.
Every suisider would disagree with you
@@chardaskie I'm 35. By 23 I'd almost died several times my life has been a shit storm but i march on and im non-religious. My advice to you focus on bettering yourself mentally, physically, intellectually learn a library of skills not just new but old and strive for excellence and leaving something good behind. That's probably shortest way I can say it without going into a novel length comment.
A professor I know actually started teaching a course on Death and Dying starting back in 2021 as a sort of experiment during covid times. It's since become one of the most popular courses at her university with students filling up every seat in the class. People want to talk about these taboos but the venues to encourage discussion of them are so few. Thank you for making this video.
A similar thing happened at a religious university I attended 20+ years ago. The course dealt with death and other hard topics, and wasn’t popular…then 2 planes crashed into 2 buildings and suddenly everyone was taking theology electives.
Our culture has made death and birth economic/industrial processes and as a result we lose track of our place in the chain of being.
Pro tip from an old(er) dude: try DMT if you get a chance. It’s the lowest risk way to practice death and be forced to consider the nature of “spiritual” reality. It also makes you cooler to people impressed by that sort of thing 😅.
I took a course at my university Death and Dying in World Religions. It was interesting
eh, probably just emo/gothic teens.
As a mathematician, who is also deeply religious, you made some really good points. For a long time I saw concepts to be defined by their negation. There can be no nice weather without dark clouds and rain, no health without disease.
You also brought in some point I never actively thought about: we *need* to see the negation, the opposite to understand an object/concept.
In my studies, when learning a new definition, a new theorem, a new rule, while reading it the first time I quite often believed to understand it. However when confronted with an exercise using this concept, I was quite often helpless at first. This inability vanished more often then not when seeing a negative example first. This gives me a much tighter crasp on these new ideas.
What religion do you believe? Not really looking for a conversation, I'm just curious. :)
@@themanwiththeplan676 Christianity, officially I am catholic, however I see myself primarily as a Christian and I believe all the major churches belong to the same fold of Jesus Christus.
@richardbailleul5928 Gotcha. Thanks for the well articulated answer. Didn't expect an reply so quickly. Lol
I think that negation can lead to gratitude and thus a more meaningful recognition of the good, but I don't think that the good requires the opposite to exist. I fell ill after being healthy, but my state of being healthy was not created by my future disease/sickness.
As a panentheistic Hindu from India, I certainly do think that the world is ultimately interconnected, which is why the diverse elements cannot be seen in isolation. Mahatma Gandhi often stressed the need for unity. This is why, in spite of being a Hindu, he had this to say about Christ:
"Jesus expressed as no other could the spirit and will of God. It is in this sense that I see him and recognize as the Son of God. And because the life of Jesus has the significance and the transcendence to which I have alluded, I believe that he belongs not solely to Christianity but to the entire world, to all races and people. It matters little under what flag, name or doctrine they may work, profess a faith or worship a God inherited from their ancestors."
-Gandhi, M.K. (1955), My Religion, Compiled/edited by Bharatan Kumarappa, Ahmedabad: Navjivan Publishing House, p. 25
Namaste and love from India! I hope that love and peace prevail in the world! 🙏🇮🇳☮️☮️
Negation is like chunking away chunks off of a block of marble to make a sculpture.
Doesn't give the full picture, but helps shape it.
I am a three combat tour disabled vet. I am with Viktor Frankl on this one. Simply: "The meaning of life is that you give it one."
"Be Responsible"
The actual quote: "“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
~Viktor Frankl.
Well said & thank you for relaying that great wisdom
The "meaning of life" is a question only asked in atomized, postmodern societies. Life is inherently meaningful for people not living in countries where nobody belongs and nobody builds.
I’ve been watching your videos for about 2 years now but I think this is the first time I’ve ever commented on one. Im 20 years old and I find it incredible that someone as articulate and insightful as you is only older than me by a few years. Truthfully, it makes me question if I am where I am supposed to be for someone my age. This feeling made me anxious initially, but over time it morphed into a sense of curiosity and desire to think about the world in new ways. You have legitimately been one of the main reasons I have opened up to the world and tried to view topics in a new light. I started watching your channel because I really enjoyed alternative history, but these recent philosophy videos have been absolutely amazing. I won’t even claim they change my views all the time, but simply hearing about concepts that are so “foreign” to our generation and yet seem to strike a chord deep down is incredible. Thank you WhatIfAltHist, you truly are one of the greats on this platform.
I'm nearly 26 and this guy dwarfs me in eloquence and wisdom, despite being younger than me.
I’d be careful when listening to this guy. I’m a history major, going on to study macro history. This guy loves to spit a lot of half truths and things he can’t verify to fill in the gaps of what we understand. Not to mention the guy just spits on university and academic institutions, having never been, having no understanding of critical analysis or how to cite a source.
Literally look at his bibliography he just lists books. You’re supposed to at least give page numbers and the like so things can be fact checked.
@@luck3yp0rk93 Someone dumb enough to go to school under a history major is the last person I'm going to listen to. This is TH-cam, not an expert's panel, nor a classroom, he has full creative liberty to talk about anything he wants however he wants, the standards here are set by himself, not academia. He didn't have to cite any sources, but he did, and he did it in a way that caters to the average person. Everyone was taught how to cite a source, it doesn't make you special, nobody cares to use it since it's one of the worst things ever created, all it does is obfuscate information for the sake of feeling like you are smart or professional.
@@luck3yp0rk93no one can be 100percent right all the time , you have to be a God to do that but while his facts might be wrong most of the time , his theories and analysis are very much on point
@@sunnymodi4496 idk saying the fascist economy worked when it was actively crumbling under slave labour, saying the strong national identity of fascism was a positive despite it driving the world to world war twice, idk man. Not the brightest. I don’t blame him since yknow… he’s not a historian. He hasn’t studied the subject
When I was studying abroad, we had a few Californians studying with us. This topic came up-I think in the context of fiction. But I pointed out I wouldn’t want to live forever, my life is not even half way over by the numbers and a lot of the “turning points” I’ve experienced have left me a better person, but also tired. I think the accumulation of that weariness would be pure misery beyond the normal scope of a human lifespan.
The Californian students, without missing a beat or having any humor in their voices basically said: “It’s only a matter of time before medicine has a break through. I want to live forever.”
I was baffled at this, but just reflexively rejected that idea. It took me a year or so to articulate to myself why I had immediately felt that way; a lot of which was said in this video.
I feel like people who want to live forever must have never truly lived because it’s hard and tiring and violent, but so, so worth it. Wanting to live forever, to me, is an admission that you’ve never taken on burdens or stood for something-your life is is just a meandering grey blob of dopamine hits. We need death and strife because it infuses life with purpose. The sun sets on us all and that’s a little sad, but we also have the unique choice to enjoy that beautiful sunset with the people who matter to us. That’s not so bad, not so bad at all.
I had a similar reaction to one of the various videos from some of the popsci crowd, specifically a series of videos about how humanity needs to somehow ascend past death by CGP Gray.
In the final video of the series, Death is personified as an evil dragon perched atop a mountain which requires human sacrifice to satiate it. What's very telling is that the only people who are accepting of death are portrayed as "old fashioned religious leaders", which seems to show exactly how most of the modern western people seem to think that death is not just something that can be surpassed, but anyone who is okay with death, be it theirs or others, is some evil fudd.
You do not need death for propose. Isaac arthur has made a video about propose in post scarcity societies, which presumably in the future would not have aging people, and he has suggested plenty of ideas that don't require death. If anything, if you have the ability to live forever, then you have to worry about the heat death of the universe or entropy in general, not to mention all the things you could do between then and now. In the end, a life without death is not one without propose, and I wouldn't mistake your tiredness as a need to die.
I think i get it
I'm only around because God told me not to kill myself
I seek an honor able death
Personally some ppl want to Live forever to see the cycles of humanity in Real time
I’ve been an EOD tech for about 11 years now and the subject of death is always an interesting one. The exhilaration you describe when skirting death is absolutely real, and something that I know many of my peers actively chase. It’s hard to give up. It also makes life less stressful. Our motto is “Initial Success or Total Failure.” The normal risks we take on the job make the risk and stress of regular life seem trivial and makes life so much more beautiful. I can enjoy the beauty in my wife and family, the quiet little things, and big steps in life, and know that I can move towards death with my head held high. Death isn’t what is scary; living a life paralyzed by fear and never doing anything is what truly terrifies us.
It's the same motto as my life's motto. 🎉
@@long-hair-dont-care88. You should read the 7 habits of effective people by Stephen r covey. He explains how the best way to live our lives is living in a principled way; 'the hero'. And he shows us how to restructure our world view to do it. It's worth a read.
@@Walkdplankfrankyeah, but whose principles, the author's? Can I make up my own principles?
"I will either be successful, or it will quickly cease to be my problem. Sounds like a Win/win"
What are you an eod tech for. (Like military, police, civilian, or?)
Here’s a list of the top 3 things that help me understand death better:
1: The Egg, made by Kurzgesagt
2: Puss in Boots: The last wish, made by Dreamworks
3: This video, made by Whatifalthist
If you want to comment about helping you understand death. :)
MiIIion doIIar baby reaIIy made me think deepIy about Iife, death and the meaning of both; I watched it in my Iate 10s/earIy 20s, it's a movie everyone shouId watch in my opinion
I’ll see where I can get@@Augustus_Imperator
@@Augustus_Imperator i recommend " I stand alone" from Gaspar Noe.
Bruh
It's a shame that Kurtz and Whatifalthist probably hate eachothers' guts.
babe wake up new whatifalthist video just dropped
Fast!
“Cmon babe it’s literally 2:32 am.”
His videos aren't that good.
Ugh! Ok I'm up 😴
It got a laff from my wife, so…
I was in the Army for a while and got deployed to combat zones a couple times. After I got out there was a period of time where I would get disturbing deployment themed dreams where I was in the 'presence of death' or surrounded by the 'risk of death'. Having had time to reflect upon these things now, I think that Death is a kind of 'master emotion' and I can well understand how some people personify it as an entity due to it's being such an overwhelmingly negative and saturating experience. It's the strongest emotion I've ever felt and I suspect all the other emotions are essentially derivatives of and subsequent to it.
5:51 I am an insane WWI buff and know a lot about the war and usually spend my disposable income on relics and books related to WWI which I gained a fondness of after trying to emulate to honor my history buff friend who died of suicide. That's not the point nor a flex, one particular obsession of mine has been researching my great-great-grandfather and his struggles as a doughboy in WWI. He was referenced very peripherally when I was a kid by my family but I was close with all his daughters, fuck the last time said daughters were with each other was probably with me. Also not the point. I have read that he with his company saw the first death in his regiment and a sniper, and how he had to help take a German machine gun nest. He sadly died of a very rare and painful disease before WWII ended. He kept an incredibly dark and sad poem in his bible when my family gave me his belongings 100 years later. Learning about him in many ways has made me a lot better of a person, I can't explain why or how but I feel like learning about him, his struggle, and his life, has made profound impacts on my life. I think it's because I became incredibly humble along with other of life's circumstances.
Since you are a WWI buff, what do you make of the fact that WWI technologies like spigot mortars, grenades, radios, etc. are perfectly available for the common citizen (a single trip to a hardware store or the purchase of a 3d printer can allow you to make them), why aren't they ever used in any meaningful way by the criminal class? In South America, a group called FARC has been building narco subs for the past 20 years. Why haven't they made torpedoes? The technology exists. It is over 100 years old. Why can't people leverage that in any way? It just seems to me like the vast majority of people are either disconnected, or dumb, and society exists as a way to force them to build such things - and in doing that, the creation of such weapons only benefits the people at the top of the society, and actively harms the people at the bottom (like people in 3rd world countries).
When you realize this, then what is a citizen within a society supposed to do? Build your own society? I've tried to join several groups/organizations that profess to build up their members. None of them do. It's all just people siphoning off wealth from others to benefit themselves. I don't know how to proceed in life with the knowledge that I'm just a prole, and exist as a slave for other people. All options available simply don't benefit me (abandonment of society and becoming homeless, suicide, hedonism, etc.), and allow the people who have abused me to 'win.'
What struggles from those dying men in WWI trenches even apply?
Whats the poem?
@@RavemastaJ start robbing or take social benefits if it's possible.
Mind your language
If he wouldn't have fought for the invader army then he might not have gotten sick.
When I was 9, I was sleeping on the couch with my dad. He fell asleep without turning off the TV, while I couldnt fall asleep. There was a documentary about a Japanese teenager that was murdered. It made my child brain realise that death is real and unpredictable. It sent me into a depression until I started listening to Sabaton at 13. Listening to their songs made me realise that these heroes they wrote about didnt fear death. The line "We still remember your name, Karel Janoušek!" stuck with me and made me realise that the a hero is never forgotten and lives on eternally. Master Jan Hus, a Czech national hero, went against the church to protect the common folk from a morally corrupt institution. He knew full well his fate will be burning at a stake, but he didnt fear it and took the risk. Now he is, as I mentioned, a hero, one that is immortal now. I cant see anyone, not even myself, standing there at the tribunal in Kostice, still not fearing the fate of death and still standing there heroicly. Once a person like this exists again, standing heroicly against evil, we will know the West has recovered.
Somehow I knew I would see sabaton mentioned in these comments
Felt the same way when I used to watch true crime shows on Discovery Channel as a kid.
I remember driving one sunny day I was watching the trees as I drove by and seeing the shadows of the trees reveal itself as I drove by. I don’t know what it was in that moment but I suddenly had this intuitional knowing that everything I did in my life, everything that everyone did in their lives revolved around the fact they would die one day, and up until that moment the idea only laid in the back waters of my mind. I think that it’s quite interesting that you decided to bring this up. I feel like most people in general are afraid to talk about anything real or don’t even understand or choose to not even think about it. In a lot of ways it feels like the book Fahrenheit 451 has came true. To everyone reading this comment know truth, speak truth, and most importantly seek truth. Talk about something real in your lives don’t just garble on about a bunch of meaningless garbage and constantly chase after a hedonistic life.
You wouldn't be the first either
People just don't do hedonism very well, that's the real problem.
Self destructive decadence, lust for materialist tacky 'nouveau riche' showy nonsense and short term abuse leads to an unsatisfactory weak high. Seeking another's jealousy or respect is never it.
Hedonism should be approached with long term sustainability in mind and risk/harm reduction as a rudder. Maximising bang for buck in a physical emotional and financial sense.
Epic Poetry, fine spirit toasting, and comedic roasting to set ones psychological frame.
then LSD, trance dancing to an apocalyptic cresendos like great waves breaking on your soul...
then making love with a consenting adult!
then all going for a swim as the sun rises
no cigars , no cocaine, no Lamborghinis, no lies, no posing and posturing, no bullshit.
Just sheer unadulterated brain slapping joy.
Thats hedonism my friend.
I ain’t reading all that
Well the thing is until we are dead we are alive. We can't really understand what death is so we sort of blindly follow what everyone else is doing not realizing that the sheer infinity of nonexistent cancels out everything we do in existence.
@@scholaroftheworldalternatehist one cannot be equated with the other. only existence can be felt.
I feel fortunate that the religion I was raised with (Islam) has a strong focus on understanding and accepting death. Since childhood I was taught that death is not only inevitable but can come at any time and we should live this life in a way that has the most permanent positive impacts on the people and the world around us because the effects of our actions (and our offspring, like you say) are all that will remain when we die. It's also reinforced over and over again in weekly Friday sermons as it's so easy to forget about especially in today's world. This video is so refreshing to see since as you mention, modern Western society is so focused on material life and avoiding thinking about death. Throughout my life there have been very few people I have come across outside of my family and faith who actually understand and accept death. I am so glad I found your channel and hope our paths cross some day. Keep up the excellent work.
Good one R.
The trick I had to master was how to pass on 'meaning' to my two girls, being an agnostic science teacher myself.
Agnosticism helped in that the search for deity/dogma made me very well read and also helped to set my moral compass.
From that point I endeavoured to be unfailingly honest to them at all times, and loyal to their continued welfare.
I think most importantly, when they reached an age to understand it, and reiterating it every few years, I gave each of them an explicit commitment that for the rest of my life, I would always be there when they called, wherever in the world that is, I would back them up and get them out of any trouble, and I would [explicitly] take harm in defence or offence to the point where I would give my life for theirs.
Being explicit on this point is what I think hammered home the 'deep meaning' for me here.
I can't neglect to say that this honesty and frankness extends to telling my daughters when I think they're wrong. I think everyone needs to know when someone thinks they're wrong, especially on morality stances. One may maintain ones stance, but at least they know an alternate viewpoint.
Much like yourself I foresee financial hardship, physical inconvenience, pain and suffering, resource constraints and possible/likely regional famine. And like you I see this in the not distant future.
To make meaning from this scenario I have offered safe-haven to all extended family [no exceptions] and close friends, to a large, isolated and sustainable [getting there] property. In that way my job is to be shepard and protector of those that are kin, and those that I think are good, worthy people.
Making meaning I think can be a hard thing, except when one's goals are to give, even something as little as one's time.
Well said.
I never felt any joy after any life-threatening situations: if it was my fault I usually felt something like shame in a 'that would be an extremely dumb way to die' fashion, otherwise I got angry at people who are responsible for putting me at risk. On the opposite, recovering from a sickness/surgery/trauma (whether physical or mental) consistently feels amazingly invigorating for me. So I can relate to this video merely partially.
then again he is a self admitted PTSD ridden neurotic wreck in a frantic search for meaning with the limited faculties he has. so take what he says with a hefty grain of salt.
I feel shame when i think of past moments but i didn’t feel anything at the time cause i was so out of touch with reality thinking i was invincible and that’s what ultimately brings the shame now
I would say i do feel joy in my near death experience, when i come close to being in a car crash it inevitably puts a huge smile on my face at a mminimum or i may even scream of joy, although i do not seek the adrenaline rush of death.
It's similar to soldiers screaming of joy or laughter "fu** yeah baby!!!" Or something similar, when bullets whistle over their heads...
I don't know why i feel like that though
What if it was a freak event which could not have been foreseen by anyone?
Best video he's outputed in a while, honestly WhatIfAltHist should do far more philosophy/folklore/culture/life-advice videos
😘
yea because the rest is right wing bullshit
Philosophy yes. His family structures around the world was fantastic.
But his modern dating video was garbage just based on his own specific experience. Not all of his advice is worth taking.
@@jstnrgrs that's one of the only videos of his I haven't seen. That and the origins of communism video. Kinda glad I didn't see much interest in the topic.
Philosophy, like historical analysis, is the abstraction of lessons from life data
I think rather than death itself, it's the concept of scarcity as a whole that is what drives everything. Death is one such example of that (the scarcity of your life span), but you can also see it in many other areas such as economics. And, as you mentioned, when you have infinite of anything, you tend to appreciate it significantly less.
This mfer never fails to put out absolute bangers
I think you have given the perfect explanation for the modern 'nanny state' where the government encourages people to live as safely as possible. However, safety can also mean boring, and that's why my generation (Gen Z) is so depressed all the time. Everyone is scared to talk to each other, well making friends and learning to know the people around you is the greatest journey a human can have. The lack of purpose also comes from not accepting that we'll die, so we need to do something before our limited time on this marble is over. I'm into politics, and I'm always arguing to measure the fun factor in policy. We can try to ban every dangerous thing, but that doesn't make anyone happy. There is this video from Gerbert Johnson called 'Why Young Men Aren't Growing Up' that describes the difficulties that come with living in a nanny state.
I only realized it recently. But yeah as Gen Z I have a huge fear of just about everything. Fear is literally always in the back of my mind. There are others my age who just seem to not have this. But I am always convinced the worst outcome will happen. I always try and prepare for it. I'm always baffled how people just charge in and sometimes it works and sometimes they make a mistake that a minite of thinking would have prevented.
Anxiety rules my life and I guess others. There is and can never a solution. I'm still living and have great things in life. But I am definitely "meek" in someway and can't stand confrontation or whatever with others because I just can't handle it. My brain just never got the memo.
It's ok, I hear your cries and I know what it's like to feel that dread and shame, take it easy out there brother
one of your best videos ! been a fan of yours for maybe a year. been travelling the world for almost a half year. been drinking way too much but it's been so beautiful and I'm so lucky and thankful. I've always chose Heroism and watching this video helps me understand other ways of thinking. greetings from Kotor !
I love watching your videos because they make me think in different dimensions, instead of the ones I'm used to in day-to-day life.
As a former nursing home worker (non med) and widower , this video reminds me of witnessing countless families lose the ones they loved.
There can be more to life extension than just an "impossible fantasy". To me, this faint hope makes me strive to have the best possible physical and mental health and being as productive as possible so that I'll have enough money to make use of whatever advancements may appear. This (as an atheist) is kind of my religion and gives me great fortitude to endure difficulties in life and it gives my life meaning and clear goals.
Glad to see someone who isn't dissing Life Extension and can think beyond thinking of it as bad or as a fantasy.
And I'll do everything in my power to prevent life extension tech from ever seeing the light of day. The rich should not live forever in their gilded mansions while the poor scramble for whatever scraps are leftover
@@MonsieurWorldwide Inevitable death and oblivion for all, what a beautiful philosophy.
Whatifalthist: use my promo code to buy my phone case
4 seconds later
Whatifalthist: YOURE GOING TO DIE
With advancing age, one is forced to confront it's inevitability. My best friend, Lynn, died a few months ago. While being able to meet with her other friends before her funeral, I was paralyzed to attend her funeral that weekend. I found comfort with the group, alternately crying and laughing, as we shared our good and bad times with her. Having trouble coping with the loss, possibly a guilt hangover for not having been at the funeral. Coping in a similar way to my husband's death.... Couldn't show up.
Her absence was sudden, yet not unpredictable. Depression, addiction and lack of judgement created conditions for death by misadventure. Agorophobic, she sustained a fatal head injury going out alone, and fell in a public bathroom.
When things are at their worst, doing service for others ALWAYS helps me. Having a son and devoted partner has sustained me through some awful times.
I think part of the reason our agnostic/atheistic society can't have death in our lives is because we dont have a story for it. That doesnt necessarily mean religion, although thats how we've solved that problem to date
He’s right on the death part. Snow boarding and mountain biking are my fav ways. I always played sports growing up but nothing beats tearing down a mountain in between trees over rocks and jumps while needing to be absolutely sure of ur line and landing spots or ur taking a nasty nasty fall and for sure some type of injury. Snowboarding is more chill but none the less dangerous due to higher speeds.
16:14 I think viewing Life as dealing with the problem of Death has an intrinsic Christian bias. In other cultures where the nature of Death is understood differently, there are another 3 problems that some cultures see as more central: Suffering (Buddhist), Change (Islamic) and Causality (Hindu).
he was raised quaker so youre probably right...
Islam also sees the world through a strict dichotomy of life and death. Hinduism, buddhism and Daoism do not.
Newsflash, the guy has a Christian and religious bias.
Yes, Abrahamic faiths and Christianity in particular sees death as a problem not something that is an inherently good thing and part of life in a positive sense. The fact that the point in faith is that our Creator will pull us out of death and towards life should be noted as it’s the most important thing, defeating death
Idk man I think dealing with the prospect of death is a universal idea and the root of virtually all philosophies.
I'd like to see you do a video on the French Revolution and its parallels with the modern day. It has a lot of lessons that are key to stuff happening today.
When you started talking about the beauty of art in relation to death it made me think back to the amazing scene from Doctor Who where the Doctor brings Van Gogh to an art museum in the modern day and everyone is packing the room to see his art while the curator describes him as the best artist.
If you know you know.
This was quite an intricate and profound video. I do agree that balance is an indispensable aspect of our reality. At the same time, I am not inclined to believe that positive facets of life (such as love and beauty) need something negative to exist. The existence of the negatives could aid us in appreciating what we already have, but this does not mean that the good requires the bad. You don't need to hate the world in order to love your family. Ultimately, it is life that drives life. Namaste and love from a Hindu from India! 🙏🇮🇳☮️☮️
Rudyard, thank you for making this video. The topic of death is something that I am always thinking about and knowing that i'm not the only one thinking about it keeps my mind at ease.
Instead of learning full time, this man is both learned, and teaching full time. Props to him
Saw some other positive comments so I might as well..
Your videos really do hit hard with what I'm feeling and generally the problems we're facing. I'm not sure how they'll be defeated but I appreciate that someone at least has perspective in the crazy world we're in, I'm around your age but I have a lot more to learn. I think many people may also fear death because of a lack of fulfillment, too much focus on meaningless things. Our society places so much value on useless and addictive activities that only seek to worsen our mental health. I tend to feel bad for our world after I watch your content, because it really is sobering once you pull away the curtain.
Just when I accepted my mortality, and didn't even care about it much for a few years, two things happen. In November 2022 my mom dies, and then after that GPT gets released. First horrible event leads me to do what I've done since I was a kid to cope, and that is to do philosophy and try to find some hope in it. There I realize that something that didn't really help me much, but it did confuse me enough that I can't even be depressed about death.
I realized that we can never really die, or better said we can never stay dead. Nature created me at least once already, so there is no reason to think it won't do so again. People often say that when you die you experience exactly what you experienced before you were born, and I agree. The thing is, I didn't experience anything as far as I know, meaning that time before I was created really flew by for me. That's exactly what happens after you die. Things move on, but for you(whatever that is), time without you existing will just happen in an instant, and you will be created again. To say this isn't true is to claim that you are so special, that not even nature can recreate you after trillions of years, which sounds crazier than afterlife to me.
The second thing is GPT. I completely forgot that AI is a thing, and I accepted my mortality even though I dreamed about life extension since I was a kid. However, LLM's reminded me that a lot can happen in the next few decades, and we might even figure out how to cheat death. Truth is, I am not even sure if I want this, as I am afraid we would be messing up some fundamental process that we don't understand well enough, but I can totally see radical life extension being on a horizon. Unless AI shortens our lives instead, which is probably more likely.
The last thing that makes me unable to worry about death is the possibility of solipsism. I don't know if solipsism is true or not, but I can't prove it isn't, and thinking that everyone else is conscious is just a convenient assumption my part. If it's true implications are huge. It would mean that I am yet to experience anyone dying at all. If I can't prove that other people are conscious, then I can't prove that anyone has ever stopped being conscious(died) either. Crazy, but just the possibility of this being true makes me relaxed as I know there is no point in worrying about death.
Like it or not, spirituality suits you better than politics. It just fit with the style of video you make and your insightful imagery/analogies/metaphors. Plus, I like it when you sound more calm and take your time to talk peacefully.
The king of making videos on the exact question or topic I’m contemplating at the moment. Thank you Rudyard, really appreciate this one.
The only critique I have on his first statement that we have no control over where or when we die: we have control to embrace death in sacrifice at any time, just not denying death indefinitely.
I have talked to some of my friends of these theme (death). Some just tried to avoid this reality and some want to live very hedonistic with the excuse of "I only live once", those answers made me feel pity for them. Do not get me wrong, I think about my own mortality and indeed gives me anxiety, but to live avoiding the fact or a hedonistic life are worse than death.
What if a hedonistic life is all that stopped one from dropping alot of weight so to speak.
@@long-hair-dont-care88.Well thats even sadder
I figure I live until I die. Most kids don't care if they die, until faced woth it
"but to live avoiding the fact or a hedonistic life are worse than death." Why? Death will find us anyway sooner or later, why not just avoid it? If it comes , it comes.
@@Scout887 death will come to you no matter what so is better to embrace the fact with a well thought out philosophy. This philosophy will guide your actions in a way that you can say at your last moments I had a life that was worth and helpful to others. I don't believe a person who avoids this facts can say this. They for sure avoid difficult choices on a daily basis. The hedonistic ones hurt people around them, they make other people miserable. That is why is worse than death.
Having just spent 2 days in a hospital's intensive care unit, can confirm it provides a moment of clarity. I literally saw a person die while I was there and it brought home the fragility of existence.
Man, I'm a handicap and I consider it a superpower for the same reasons the video went through in the end.
Being one makes death a much closer acquaintance than most people, which translates in me (because of my upbringing) a lack of concern to anything that poses a physical of mental threat, I just go and do all the while laughing at it like it's a cosmic sarcastic joke God is making. Only the punchline is that I actually follow through and end up farther than anyone with similar conditions because it takes a fuckton to make me stop.
Nowadays people think they need the perfect conditions to operate perfectly, when its actually the opposite.
Want to know how far can you run? Break your leg.
Want to know how fast you can learn a topic? Get anxiety.
Want to know how to live life the best way possible? Die.
A lot of what you bring to the table are things I only felt on the inside of my brain or in people of the past. I appreciate that you've been able to articulate what many of us have felt and brought a sense of connection for it.
“The gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.”
Homer
Watching this after your poll. Great video!
Life isnt something to be planned out, its to be experienced.
When one faces death, they learn the truth of themselves, will you spend all you have made in life in a sick bed begging for more time or will you roar your defiance at death, yet the rarest die with a smile and when the meet the end they treat it like a friend who has walked with them the whole journey and will bring them home.
Maybe I’m overreacting, but I really think this one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. Thank you brother
I find it refreshing that as I have got older the wisdom of my parent and their ancestors seem to become more and more relevant to me. I might not have understood at the time - indeed as a teenager and perhaps early 20 something i definitely did not, but now I see truism abound. Some of the wisest things I ever had said to me was deal with a problem if you can, and if not don't worry about it, and it's not what you know it's who you know. The latter can be interpreted in many ways but certainly I am blessed by having good friends who can not only agree with me but at times offer different points of view or different angles to see things at. They are at different age profiles, backgrounds and political stances - and I respect them all whether i agree wholly or at least partially. And if it is the latter I know their intentions are good if nothing else.
Certainly I can see that you have to give people breathing room and allow mistakes which they can learn from. There seem to be fewer people who have an overarching view of the world where factors interact and produce outcomes. Instead people appear to be atomised and just believe what their newsfeed is telling them, depending on what tribe they identify with. Certainly keeping people under the cosh and hemmed in like a cog in a machine either through over tight corporate norms or indeed dictatorships either through family or society is always ultimately a mistake. This is because people are either unable to cope once that scenario is gone, or rebel. Normally in either circumstances the outcome is good for no one.
Being a Venezuelan living in CDMX I can say that when I see any American it is like seeing a little squirrel, they look so fragile and delicate that I treat them with such kindness, because I see them as very innocent, as many do not know the real world outside of their bubble country, not all of them are like that, but a great majority is noticeable, including the one who narrates this video, when I see him, I see his innocence, he does not know evil. For this reason, in part, I am grateful to have been born in a country as harsh as Venezuela. I was able to see the destruction of a country from its very foundations from a young age and come out stronger
as someone who is born in Turkey and still witnesses how the countries own Culture and Religion is being manipulated against to hypnotize the people away from how the current goverment and leadership is sucking the blood out of my country turning it to a lifeless husk waiting to be collapsed after the upcoming Great Earthquake of İstanbul i understand how you feel...
and honestly i feel the same way, since its kind of only sensible choice i can make in this situtation, accept that in the end most things are out of your control and all you can do is to keep yourself and those you care about safe by being strong for both your and your loved ones sake
This is a very profound video. Hits very close to home for many reasons. It has motivated me because i see mu flaws and fears exposed in this video. Now j see that i need try to socialize and find a woman to start a family with. And thats exactly what i am going to do.
Thank you
Me too, especially the conclusion about worrying about all sentient life as a way of abdicating individual responsibility...
@@smalltimepyeah. Wish you luck.
What timing for this video...I was pondering to make a simillar video of my own while heading home from the gym but listening to this laid down a solid foundation.
Yesterday, I sadly had to witness the cremation of my father who passed away last week. Having lost my mother already as a child, I always considered myself some sort of preconditioned to dealing with death, with the passing of my Grandmother in 2019 after a long stint of illness feeling like a kind of trial for what I'm going through now. However, realising out of the blue that you have no more parents at 24 years old is understandably very daunting. Being a young man already dealing with the existential dread of sustaining himself, I am kind of surprised how much determination and drive I was able to pull out of my circumstances. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but if it somehow equates to the mentioned sense of heroism mentioned in the video, I'd say the ability to coexist with grief and dread and to convert it into passion to do the best you can do with the card one has been dealt, that is the closest thing I can see to that. I'm still wondering how I am not falling into despair over something so massive, considering I have had times with a more nihilistic mindset. While I did...indulge a tiny little bit in the more hedonistic side of life for a few days to get my mind of it temporarily, with such things moderation is key. Either way, nice video and nice change of pace, great to see you mixing it up a bit!
I've had a few near-death experiences, and I haven't felt any differently after any of them.
Life just continued on, and the most that I felt was bewilderment at how little the experience affected me, knowing that I was probably supposed to be feeling something in that moment but realizing that I just didn't.
Am I okay?
You weren’t close enough
@@Terrapin47-s8y Having actually been there, all I can say is "lmao."
I've had the same experience. Had multiple extremely close calls, but afterward I always just felt vacant. It wasn't uniquely exhilarating or life-affirming, it was hollow -- almost mundane.
If the near-death experience actually touches or impacts you, you feel damaged by it and broken. What Rudyard describes is what Malcolm Gladwell calls a "remote miss", where the person's baseline tolerance increases as they lose fear.
It could be you don't really care about your life, as you're not building anything you wouldn't want unfinished in death.
I had this exact same revelation not even less then a week ago. The fear of death is source of all evil, sin, and anxiety. But it might also be the source of all good.
I had this experience reading the manga Vinland Saga. A viking warrior died a violent dead and we have the experience of knowing his finals thoughts. He did not see Valhalla. Many comments on the page I read were cheering as they found validation for not believing in any after life and they felt smarter than this character. They do not understand the power of religion, this guy fought a lot of enemies to the end. Meanwhile we the enlighted with no religion can't do basic shit without anxiety. I do not endorse violent religions but you can't deny the power of believing in afterlife. The vikings did incredible things and even more incredible things after they started believing in Christ.
What did he saw?
@@oitubeman1019 he saw only darkness
Those little moments in Vinland Saga are gold
@@reviewspiterasthat's harrowing. Only a rare few get a peek at what's next for them...
i dont see how murder pillage and rape are "incredible things"
You always find me and set me straight when I hit my worst like now, and entertain me when I'm at my best. Thank you
My dad just died, my life is in ruins due to more than a couple of factors, and well this video just dropped. Here goes
Stay strong brother
I am so sorry.
2:55 Part 1: The Worm Ouroboros
11:37 Part 2: The Tree of Knowledge
22:37 Part 3: How to Face Death
27:39 Part 4: Modernity's Greatest Flaw
Dad just passed recently, very coincidental time where I’ve been experiencing death so close for the first time.
This is quite possibly the best video on TH-cam.... thanks for your amazing work I'm 44 years old and I'm shocked at your incredible knowledge of the world and the humans in it at such a young age.
I once wrote a fantasy novella with a mix of Tolkien themes and Greek theology. The original sin of the world was the creation of man. The deities held power over the elves because smites were a real threat. For man, it wasn't nearly as much so. Man was able to overthrow the deities. It was terribly written and I'd be embarrassed for anyone to read it, but I think the premise deserves more attention.
Well done young man. Many people do not want to hear this message, but they should. It is fear that is the mind killer.
Yes death can make life more precious if one comes out of the experience relatively unscathed, but on the other hand if one is in for a lifetime of pain & suffering, not so much.
I spent over a decade in the Navy and saw more death than I thought I would. I have been in dangerous situations where I knew I would die, and then I didn't. Now I have children and I deeply value every moment. Every coo from my baby, every little thing, like seeing her sit up for the first time. Its all magical.
Another TH-camr I watch refers to our relationship to death as 'mortality salience' and it's a phrase I really like. Our relationship to death colors so much of how we live life and react to it. We do so much to make ourselves as immortal as possible be it through art, memes, or progeny and people hardly ever talk about it.
Edward Dutton?
@@DrakusLuthos I speak of Stardusk aka The Thinking Ape, but it very well could be something he got elsewhere.
@@matsuringo24 I suppose some Stardusk fans did pay attention to Jolly Heretic Dutton.
I enjoy the Jolly Heretic for explaining why Idiocracy is happening worse than Mike Judge ever portrayed it.
I always need to remember how I would like to go, standing up.
My depression is killing me, I am medicated and I am perpetually lonely.
But I don't fear death. Even if I was staring it down several times in my life.
I’ve been reading Maps of Meaning for the better part of ten years and feel like I’m just starting to touch down on the core concepts or understanding how to integrate any of it into my philosophy/perspective of existence. Definitely Petersons best book, although I’d say sort of apples to oranges consider the rules for life series is something condensed and spun for the masses in an effective way. Maps of Meaning is more or less an Ivy League funded textbook. It’s complex as any modern literature has ever been, and it takes background in many areas to really tie it all together. A background that has personally taken me a decade to culminate some competence in. I’m typically someone who tests for a high learning agility. It’ll probably be another ten years of accumulating additional background knowledge from a variety of different core disciplines before I’ll be confident in claiming I truly comprehend the value behind literature such as this. To think that many men like Peterson through history have achieved something similar through the work in the world and leaving a mark history can’t forget even when it tries makes me feel like an absolute worm lol.
All that said, I believe it is death is what compels me to seek knowledge with a radical passion in life. I think there’s immortality in there somewhere. To learn all that I can about consciousness and reality so I might one day make sense of it all. To live immortal through some great opus left behind in the world that might help other people draw the same knowledge which might lead to a good life and being someone of value to others. It’s such an insurmountable undertaking, but none the less death compels.
This was a great video and anyone involved should absolutely be proud of it.
This is definitely your best video yet. I have watched your video's for a while, but this is the first time that you spoke about something that I knew a lot about. I have always struggled explaining some of these subjects to people and having them grasp even a bit of the essence of the concept. But in this video you explained all of that and more much more efficiëntly. Thank you for this video. I have learned a lot.
Again.
Thanks for this. This truly is your most important video. I held back tears like three times during the video. The quotes and ideas explored really hit me mehn. Especially because death is a concept we're all aware of, but we rarely talk about. And because for my whole adult life and my late teens I've wondered what the point of life is. I can't say I understand what the meaning or puropse of life is, but seeing it as something I can look back on at death's door, and smile at is a most worthy goal if you ask me.
I just have to say, THANK YOU for making these videos. I've been watching your channel for a couple of weeks now and it's so refreshing to see someone who actually tries to tackles the complex factors that make up our reality. I thought I was just the crazy one, thinking about all things that no one else seemed to care about. A lot of people can't face the reality we live in and turn to hedonism just to stay alive. THANK YOU again Whatifalthist, you have shined a light into my life. :)
I truly wonder if people think about this, let alone speak about it with others they trust. I think everyone approaches death with the variety that we live. Speaking for others would be insane, so its easier to do so for myself.
Context matters, and nothing starts in a vacuum. I've never been married, no kids, and just turned 47 a couple weeks ago. I have an associates in applied sciences degree that I never got to use (ITT Tech, and they were shut down). The moment I realized my own mortality was six years ago, I got diverticulitis (an infection of the lower intestine/colon). I barely made it to the hospital in time, as I was pending a rupture that would have most certainly killed me. I spent 8 days in the hospital and lost over 25 lbs. One of those day, a chaplain came by and spoke with me. I'm an ardent atheist, and try to be respectful of religious people, but I won't give in. I talked about my situation and current life, and it got to the point when the chaplain asked me "What do you have to live for?" I could have taken this one of two ways: 1) If I have nothing to live for, why go on? 2) Find something to live for. I would eventually chose the latter.
The next week, Congress was voting to overturn the Affordable Care Act (aka 'Obamacare'), and thanks to Sen. McCain, it was not repealed. Even though I'm an Army veteran, I didn't go to the VA hospital because they were further away and my status wasn't current. If my condition was deemed 'pre-existing' and my insurance was null & void (paid via work), then I would have to pay my medical bills without insurance. I was living in a mobile home, barely making it from paycheck to paycheck. I was so overcome with dread, I actually sold all of my books to a used book store, packed up my undershorts, t-shirts & socks to be thrown away, and placed a loaded pistol on my coffee table, pending the vote. A month later, I had surgery, and they took 4 in. of my colon. In the end, my bills were over $142,000, but with insurance, I only paid $6700. Medical bankruptcy was NOT an option I would live with.
To come to terms with death, you need to first look at your life. I took up stoicism, and it guided how I thought & felt about my life, the world, other people, etc. For the longest time, all I ever wanted was to be a good husband and a great father. Addressing the issue that would never happen was the greatest emotional challenge of my life. I have little family, few friends, and almost no impact on the lives of others. Now, I'm living in a very nice home, make enough money to get most of the things I've always wanted, and making plans for international vacations.
The goal now is to die as I have lived. I think that's a good way to go. Thanks for reading. Have a great day!
But what if there is a hell and a real God? Then what
@adamguy33 Which God? Yours? My folks? My ex-girlfriend's? The one that has the most worshippers in my area? It doesn't matter. If there is one, and he/she respects my reasoning, then things might be amicable. If he/she is angered by my disbelief, then they're not a God worth worshipping. That's all I have to say about it.
@@ebhark2012 all religions could be wrong , but they cant all be right. What is the truth is the question that demands an answer. Many people believe in many different gods and they could all be wrong and just believe in the imaginations of someone long past dead or in their own current imaginations of some god or higher power. But our own imaginations or those of others doesn't make something true or not thats just logical. Jim Wallace is a really successful cold case detective who was figured on dateline and third generation atheist. He used his skills to see if there was any validity to any of the religions and if there was a God and what he found out was pretty astonishing. Look him up.
@adamguy33 I think you focused a little too much on projecting your personal beliefs onto others. I gave my own perception, based on my own experiences, regardless of what others thought or felt. How we deal with death is as we deal with life. Everyone is going to be different. Religion is a reaction, a response to how one wants to deal with life & death, but isn't a requirement.
I remember learning about how WWI was the worst conflict in human history. After experiencing war and combat in Afghanistan I went back and studied WWI to help myself deal with my own problems. The things the men in WWI had to do are unthinkable today
The video is spot on. I came to many of the same conclusions 10 years ago when I had an existential crisis that lasted a month.
Great Video. As someone in my 50s I've started to look at how many good productive years I have left. I've decided that I need to maximize my efforts and really enjoy my life and appreciate it for what it is. I just went camping in Zion National Park in Utah, a staggeringly beautiful place, and it really brings me happiness to bring my teenagers there so we can experience it together and challenge ourselves with memorable adventures (like hiking up the Narrows for the first time, which was really cool). I do this now and enjoy it now because I know in 20 years doing a hike like that will probably not be possible for me. It's not hedonism, but just enjoying what we have living life to the fullest and being happy to be able to experience it. Death and decline is hard to look at, but I am determined to really love the time I have left!
Some of your greatest work to date, absolutely fantastic. By far one of my favourite historians.
I agree with this. While I was in the Navy, I had a near death experience. It was an eye opener. Made me a survivor and appreciate life as is. Now, I travel the world to know the people in the world. USA is small compare to the rest of the world. Near death experience can make a person look at the world at a different light. Some of those that are not well equipped to cope are granted PTSD. While those who are prepared themselves for death and accepts it will recover and appreciate life.
If my Cryonic Suspension works and the TH-cam still exists, then I shall definitely share your videos
Good video 👍 keep it up.
I'm pretty sure I have bipolar disorder undiagnosed. I know I have family on both sides with it, and I have seemingly uncontrollable and logically unexplainable extreme ups and downs.
My latest "explanation" has been the overstimulation of my mind and my lack of self control. ...so I stopped watching TV, I don't play video games, don't watch pornography, and I have stopped watching TH-cam (new videos from your channel being my one exception. I figured your videos require a longer attention span and are less frequent, and I love the content.)
I'm 21 years old, we're roughly the same age. I'm a department manager at a grocery store, and it's good to see someone from my generation who sees value in working and building something. I work a lot, and I think of it as a privilege to be able to do so.
You and I and others of course will dig and find truth and meaning in this strange ill time.
The trend to discredit you grows. Please meet it with humility, you are young, but you are exceptional in a way people twice your years may not claim. Listen, learn, and continue to grow. Let criticism forge your will and your abilities. Professing answers, well that is difficult for the wisest and most educated among us. Instead I suggest you continue to open doors to more questions. Always search to challenge your own understanding and that of others. You can't teach a man, but you can help him start to ask questions. The universe will do the rest.
You made me wait until the very end of the video. But the fireflies analogy and the story with your dad about being the only good one in the room, priceless. You just helped a big piece of life fall right into place. Well done sir, well done. And thank you
Rudyard, I could tell you were in a dark period since in an earlier video you were stating one of your vices as Kratom. People only need that stuff to numb the pain of life. Hope you're doing better
I just watched this video because I was not in an emotional state when it came out due to my wife's death. This style of thinking is essentially what I've come up with on my own as a young child who was excluded as "weird" but have never been able to articulate to others how I think and why I've been able to keep raising my daughter with as little help as I've asked for. This issue is most definitely at the forefront for modern society, and it's something that I've pushed my younger family members to focus towards.
Another amazing video, nice work man. Your videos feel more and more poetic. It's wonderful!
Rudyard this is your best video I’ve ever watched! Brilliant! Resonant! TRUTH! Memento mori!!!! God bless you, man! I’m praying for you as you emerge from all your late rough patch!
great video, you are really a inspiration for my videos, I've also learn a lot from your content as a current student! thank you for all the advice it really impact a lot of people, i have a suggestion for you / you should create a patron or paid content in which you show your transcripts and how you build your videos, i will love to get a insight on this
Rudyard, this was truly one of your best videos. For humans, there is no life without death. It-s what liberates us and gives us meaning.
TBH this is the most brilliant video you put out there, pretty sure never commented on another video you made... but man, having someone remind that I am just a man and I will die is something I needed
Dude, you’re killing it with these videos. Keep them coming!
"The meaning of life is to find the courage to throw yourself into the abyss, and then you realize it's a feather bed."
-Terence McKenna.
Founder of the "Stoned Ape theory" mentioned in this video.
If you want a powerful teacher of Optimism and hope and happiness, listen to the works and life of Terence McKenna.
Godspeed, Rudyard. This video may be a deeper calling for your incredible talents and seems to be the natural evolution and progression of the themes and purposes of your previous videos.
Liked and shared.
26:22 As someone who works with machines for a living, I can tell you that text wall has it backwards. The machines don't work the way intellectuals think they do. So really machines are an incredibly appropriate model for our age, we just don't educate ourselves to understand it because our models are built by those "nerds" you defined earlier.
"We were designed to breed first & be rational later," SUCH A GREAT LINE! 😂
That's why the phrase "Post nut clarity" exists. 😂
This video reminds me of Achillies’s dialogue with Briseis, “Any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again”
0:39 meaning of life = have children and/or make sure your people do well. It's not unknowable it's that simple.
After watching the video, never mind, he mentioned this stuff.
This Is a Brilliant and Even Beautiful Video!!!!
My Late Father Had Two Last Lessons To Teach Me After I Worked Up Enough Courage To Open His Bedroom Door:
1- Someday Someone Will Be Staring Into YOUR Dead Eyes;
2- Yet In Death There Is Peace, There’s Nothing To Be Afraid Of!!!!
One existential question I have for myself is this: Am I not afraid to die, or is my brain still unable to register the fact that I will one day cease to be?
Jung said the people adapted to death live as if it were no issue
Thought there would have been reference to Ernest Becker's "The Denial of Death". Fearing death and meeting death face to face are two different things. Good thoughts, keep learning and growing from a searching spirit and philosophy.
The movie White Noise with Adam Driver explores the concept of mortality and dealing with the knowledge of death in one of the most beautiful ways I've seen in film. 10/10, everyone should watch it.