>Ordinary people aren't as familiar with death, and don't have a wide range of responses to it because society hides it and pretends it doesn't exist.
I relate to this so much. I had a period of staring my potential death in the face and there is nothing in modern society that prepares you for that. I was completely rudderless for a while because I had literally no social context in which death could be faced without making people intensely uncomfortable.
There's many things I think our society is pretty crap at, but the subject of death in general has to be one of the worst offenders by far. We shouldn't be sweeping death under the carpet as a taboo subject and pretending it doesn't exist, it should be something people talk about. Death is the one thing that unites us all, it would be a far less unpleasant thing to face if people could have a sensible conversation about it without fear or grimaces.
I relate to this so much. I had a period of staring my potential death in the face and there is nothing in modern society that prepares you for that. I was completely rudderless for a while because I had literally no social context in which death could be faced without making people intensely uncomfortable.
There's many things I think our society is pretty crap at, but the subject of death in general has to be one of the worst offenders by far. We shouldn't be sweeping death under the carpet as a taboo subject and pretending it doesn't exist, it should be something people talk about. Death is the one thing that unites us all, it would be a far less unpleasant thing to face if people could have a sensible conversation about it without fear or grimaces.