The Immortalist Interpretation of History

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History is the story of our quest for immortality.

The Fear of Death and the Desire for Immortality are the primary motivations in mortal life and history.

The goal of mortal history and civilization is the conquest of Death.

The meaning of life is life. The purpose of life is more and better life.

Mortal history is a protracted struggle against Death. It is the long march of our individual and collective efforts to escape the clutches of mortality. The annals of our unflagging lust for immortality.

The goal of human history is simple and unchanging: it is to break out from the chains of mortality.

The Problem

What seems to be the problem? Death! What else?

Even Jesus was “greatly distressed and troubled” in the face of Death. (Mark 14:33)

Our Fear of Death and our Desire for Immortality are two sides of the same coin. They are not only universal, they are also natural. This fear and this desire arise not from changing modes of production, but from our survival instinct—our instinct for self-preservation.

This is why our fear of death and our desire for immortality are unquenchable. While our belief in immortality in the next life has waned, our desire for immortality in this life has been unwavering.

This primary fear and this overriding desire have thrived in and survived all our economic systems. In prehistory and recorded history, in the Stone, Bronze, Iron ages, in the Hunting, Agricultural, Industrial, Digital eras, under Feudalism, Capitalism, or Socialism, our terror of death and our thirst for immortality have persisted and thrived.

Why? Because it is founded not on transient modes of production or economic organizations, but on our most basic biological instinct, our survival instinct.

Therefore, to accept Disease, Old Age and Death is nothing less than the perversion and decadence of our most fundamental biological instinct.

Mortality is the unique problem of our species. Homo Sapiens is the only species burdened with full consciousness of its finiteness. This awareness of our mortality is intolerably complicated by our capacity to dream of an immortal state.

Excerpt from the chapter on “ImmorTalist History” in Cure Disease, Old Age & Death: The ImmorTalist Manifesto by Elixxir. New Revised 2020 Edition.
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