Marx discovered that mode of production determines our economy, our classes, our society, our state or government, our politics, our arts and literature, our worldviews and beliefs, our gods and religions, our consciousness and conscience.
But our modes of production did not and do not precede or give rise to the human body, its biology, its physiology, and its anatomy.
Our fear of Death and our desire for Immortality arise not from changing modes of production, but from our unchanging 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 waxed.
Our gods have come and gone, but our lust for eternal youth and eternal life is evergreen.
Our fear of Death and our desire for Immortality existed long before private property, classes, class struggle and capitalism. Our instinct for survival preceded all our economic or social systems, and their modes of production.
0ur Most Basic Mode of Production
The human body is our most basic mode of production.
Modes of production–whether serfdom under feudalism or wage-slavery under industrial capitalism – did not and do not create the biological fact that humans are mortals.
Our biological givens preceded each historical epoch’s mode of production by eons. From the misty beginnings of Homo Sapiens to today, our biological givens have stayed the same.
Prehistoric humans had the same body as we today. The same eyes, the same heart, the same lungs, the same innards, the same torso, the same arms and legs, the same penis and vagina, the same procreation process, and the same aging process.
Prehistoric humans even had the same maximum lifespan potential as we today.1
The Eternal Fear & Desire
Since they shared our biological givens, prehistoric humans also shared our existential problems: they got sick, they grew old, and sooner or later, everyone died.
When in proximity with a dinosaur, prehistoric humans ducked, scampered, and stampeded, just as we post-modern humans do when in the same room as a mass shooter.
Our instinct for self-preservation preceded society, culture, agriculture, and politico-economic systems. It preceded all our historical modes of productions. It is innate, an essential part of our human nature.
This fear of death and this desire for immortality have thrived in and survived all economic, social and political systems.
In prehistory and recorded history, in the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages, in the Hunter-Gatherer, Agricultural, Industrial and Internet eras, under Feudalism, Capitalism, Fascism or Socialism, mortals’ terror of death and craving for eternal youth and eternal life have persisted and flourished.
Why? Because this fear of Death and this desire for immortality are founded on our most basic instinct, our survival instinct.
Excerpt from the coming new revised 2021 edition of Cure Disease, Old Age & Death: The ImmorTalist Manifesto by Elixxir.
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