THE ANATOMY OF HUMAN DESTRUCTIVENESS
SHELDON SOLOMON (VIDEO)
OCTOBER 9th, 2008

By Terry On December 3, 2008 · 1 Comment · In >archive, Global Speakers, Terry Speakers (A/V), cultural criticism

“The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness”
(Oct 9, 2008, UBC Frederic Wood Theatre)

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Terror management theory posits that awareness of mortality engenders a potential for paralyzing terror that is assuaged by cultural worldviews: humanly created beliefs shared by individuals to provide a sense they are valuable members of an enduring and meaningful universe, and hence qualified for immortality. All cultural worldviews are ultimately shared fictions, in the sense that none of them are likely to be literally true, and their existence is generally sustained by social consensus. Consequently, encountering people with different beliefs poses a challenge to cultural worldviews, which is why people are generally quite uncomfortable around, and hostile towards, those who are different.

Additionally, because no symbolic cultural construction can actually overcome the physical reality of death, residual anxiety is unconsciously projected onto others as scapegoats: designated all-encompassing repositories of evil, the eradication of which would make earth as it is in heaven. We then typically respond to people with different beliefs (i.e., scapegoats) by berating them, trying to convert them to our belief system, and/or just killing them and in so doing asserting that “my God is stronger than your God and we’ll kick your ass to prove it.” Empirical support for a terror management conception of human violence will be provided, and recommendations for ameliorating the pernicious effects of bigotry and intolerance will be considered.

Presented by the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Arts and the UBC Terry Project.

One Response to THE ANATOMY OF HUMAN DESTRUCTIVENESS
SHELDON SOLOMON (VIDEO)
OCTOBER 9th, 2008

Lynn Stevens says:

December 17, 2008 at 2:59 am

I watched the FLIGHT FROM DEATH DOCUMENTARY. Being an ex-hippie and
now a “semi-retired version. I enjoyed the intellect and casual nostalgic personna of Mr. Sheldon Solomon and crew. Generally American-made documentaries tend to be quite inferior to Canadian National Film Board and the B.B.C. This was a pleasant exception! My PERSONAL VIEW is more a matter of not wanting long, severe PAIN and hospitalization in an indifferent environment. I am not really AFRAID of death per se; and I think the movie failed to stress that this is how many people truly feel. ALSO, they made the flaw of dwelling far too much on just the United States. This has annoyed the WORLD and I think Noam Chomsky teamed up with Canada
(and the National Film Board) in making the smash success “Manufacturing Consent”; about the media SPIN on World Affairs! my ancestors lived in the U.S.. for prabably at least 300 YEARS back! They are GOOD people; but WAY too self-absorbed! The unfortunate result is a “Mass media and School-
spawned” reluctance to REGULARLY credit specific countries BEYOND the United States! The way they have made Second World War rmovies for 64 years underscores my point ! You would think they won the war by THEMSELVES; right from the START! 400,000 or so Americans died in W.W.2. 20 MILLION RUSSIANS died in the SECOND WORLD WAR! I would enjoy a short email from Sheldon, as I found him to be of interest!