The subtle act of not giving a fuck

Becker called such efforts our “ immortality projects,” projects
that allow our conceptual self to live on way past the point of our
physical death. All of human civilization, he says, is basically a
result of immortality projects: the cities and governments and
structures and authorities in place today were all immortality
projects of men and women who came before us. They are the
remnants of conceptual selves that ceased to die. Names like Jesus,
Muhammad, Napoleon, and Shakespeare are just as powerful today
as when those men lived, if not more so. And that’s the whole
point. Whether it be through mastering an art form, conquering a
new land, gaining great riches, or simply having a large and
loving family that will live on for generations, all the meaning in
our life is shaped by this innate desire to never truly die.
Religion, politics, sports, art, and technological innovation are the
result of people’s immortality projects. Becker argues that wars and
revolutions and mass murder occur when one group of people’s
immortality projects rub up against another group’s. Centuries of
oppression and the bloodshed of millions have been justified as the
defense of one group’s immortality project against another’s.
But, when our immortality projects fail, when the meaning is lost,
when the prospect of our conceptual self outliving our physical self no
longer seems possible or likely, death terror—that horrible, depressing
anxiety—creeps back into our mind. Trauma can cause this, as can
shame and social ridicule. As can, as Becker points out, mental
illness.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, our immortality projects are our
values. They are the barometers of meaning and worth in our life. And
when our values fail, so do we, psychologically speaking. What
Becker is saying, in essence, is that we’re all driven by fear to give