The worm at the core
by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, Norman Straker, John W. Barnhill · first published 2012
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2019–2025first – last mentioned
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Demonstrates how an unconscious fear of death motivates nearly all human goals, behaviors, and cultures, examining the role of mortality awareness in prompting social unrest and war.
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The Worm at the Core
on “Ask HN: What book have you re-read 3x or more?” ↗yeah, this is mostly true...see for example the entire academic school of existential psychology known as Terror Management Theory...there are a number of good books in this area, such as The Worm at the Core: The Role of Death in Life...also see the book Corruption of Reality by Schumaker... basically these books and the entire TMT field derives from anthropology and sees mankind as a social animal adapted…
on “Reality by Consensus” ↗…the psychoanalytic language Becker uses? I'm uncertain how psychoanalysis is generally viewed by the presumably relatively young twitter psychologists, but I wouldn't expect it to be in fashion. The Worm at the Core presents a more modern, evidence-based to TMT, but I don't know if it's widely read.
on “Terror management theory” ↗…same reason all of them compulsively toil despite not needing to. The denial of death, they can’t have physical immortality so they build legacies and monuments and etc. There’s a few books on it, the worm at the core, the denial of death, they don’t specifically speak to the foibles of billionaires but it’s a logical extension.
on “Zuckerberg caught on hot mic promoting fake investment figures to support Trump” ↗