Mortality, Immortality, and Other Life Strategies

Mortality is the greatest defeat of humankind, which feeds on the belief that it can change everything in the world and adapt it to itself. The effort to overcome the mortality of the body with the immortality of the thought by creating "immortal works" is one of man's most innocent efforts against mortality. History, in a way, is the record of the conquests made by the ruling classes in order to have their names written on the list of immortals. Wars around the world, the Jewish genocide, and ethnic "cleansing" movements are all massacres committed to eliminate the "pollution" seen as the source of mortality by shedding blood and thus to get closer to immortality. All the "advances" in the field of health, precautions against diseases, exercise, nutrition regimes, obsession with hygiene... these are all elements of the strategy of breaking the structure of mortality that modernity cannot cope with and breaking it into manageable parts. Modernity isolated death, moved cemeteries and funeral ceremonies away from daily life, and turned it into a personal crime: There is no death without a cause; The deceased either died because he smoked, did not exercise, did not take the necessary precautions against diseases, or did not look left or right when crossing the street. He is guilty! Postmodernity, which transforms life into a continuous theater stage, turns death into an event that will be remembered in the news bulletins until the next news; Immortality lies in becoming famous by appearing on television screens for a few seconds. Death is not the final end of life, it means falling from the height of fame and disappearing. Disappearance is the life strategy of postmodernity in the face of mortality.

In this book titled Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies, Zygmunt Bauman reconstructs war, science, technology, love, sexuality, power, media, in short, human history, on life and death; It reveals the futile effort and failure of human beings in the face of death, which is their inevitable and unchangeable fate. It explores the moral attitude towards death and killing on this theater stage, where we sit backstage and wait for our turn in the play. This study, which is as provocative as it is profound, will attract the attention of regulars in the fields of sociology, anthropology, theology and philosophy, as well as all readers who think about death.
(From the Promotional Bulletin)



Number of Pages: 272

Year of Printing: 2000


Language: Turkish
Publisher: Ayrinti Yayinlari

First Edition Year: 2000

Number of Pages: 272

Language: Turkish