Abstract
For most parts of human history, death was an integral part of life, something that prehistoric and premodern man had no other option than to live with as best as possible. According to historians, death was familiar and tamed, it was at the center of social and cultural life. With the coming of modern secular society, death was increasingly sequestrated and tabooed, moved to the outskirts of society, made invisible and forbidden. Death became a stranger, and the prevalent attitude towards death was that of alienation. At the threshold of the 21st century, the topic of death again began to attract attention, becoming part of a revived death attitude described as ‘Spectacular Death’. In the article, the authors diagnose, analyze, and discuss the impact of the return of death during the current ‘Corona Crisis’, arguing that despite the fact that the concern with death is at the very core of the management of the crisis, death as such remains largely invisible. In order to provide such a diagnosis of the times, the authors initially revisit the prevailing death attitudes in the Western world from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Highlights
Death is a natural and normal occurrence—it is indiscriminate of individual differences, making sure no one escapes
We move on to an admittedly compact recapitulation of the history of death in a Western context from the Middle Ages to modern society. This leads us on to a conceptualization of our present attitude towards death as an age of ‘Spectacular Death’, and we present some of the main features of this recent death attitude
This article has attempted to develop a sketchy diagnosis of death in our time, as seen in the light of the present ‘Corona Crisis’ and its ground-breaking impact on our current awareness of and exposure to death—and on our way of life in general
Summary
Death is a natural and normal occurrence—it is indiscriminate of individual differences ( it is called ‘The Great Equalizer’), making sure no one escapes. It is a prerequisite for life, a functional necessity for old life giving way to new life. The enormous human discharge of energy every day is largely attributed to the fact that we shall all die In this way, death is a positive contribution to securing the continued vitality of the population and in the end ensuring the survival of the species. Throughout human history, death has been an ever-present foe to be fought with all the available means. Based on this diagnosis of death in our time, we move on to discussing the arrival and impact of the ‘Corona Crisis’ on contemporary death attitudes with the aspiration of providing some insights into what death means
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